Danganronpa MV: Path to Despair
by Otterplay
Summary: Sixteen students, each with their Ultimate talent, wake up to discover that they are trapped in a school. What kind of fate awaits them? What? What's this about a killing game? None of this can be true! Or, is it? Some characters given by a close friend, Omakin!
1. Prologue

The air was cold and eerie, although there was no reason for it to be like that. Well, at least for the time being. The person of interest was sleeping peacefully. Or as peacefully as they could sleep while sitting down at a desk. Had they fallen asleep in class? Quite possibly, but this person is not the type of person to get bored by some lectures. The person of interest was called Nonam. Nonam Nins. The air got more cold as he slowly drifted awake.

 _Huh…? Where am I?_ He thought to himself. His surroundings seemed familiar but somewhat unknown to him. He slowly stood up and looked around. _What am I doing here? I don't remember being here…_ He took in his surroundings and came to the conclusion that he was at a school. He walked over to the door and slowly opened it. What lay beyond this? Who kne- Oh, it was just a hallway. He trotted on through the school. For a school, it was empty and quiet. The only sound that could be heard was Nonam walking, but even then, he walked with a silent notion. Wait, it wasn't completely silent… there were… mumbling? He started to run to where the source of the sound.

SLAM!

Nonam slammed open a door and he was confronted by 15 people standing around talking.

"Another asshole?" Some guy said with his arms crossed, he was wearing something on his back.

"Hey, that wasn't the nicest thing" A girl with red hair said. She wore a nice little hat.

The boy that made the initial comment rolled his eyes "Whatever"

Nonam looked around. Why was everyone gathered here in this place…?

Someone put a hand on his shoulder, which gave him a little jump "Hey! Don't squirm around so much" The boy said, his eyes seemed filled with crazy intents. "We're in the same situation as you!"

"R-right!" Nonam mumbled.

"It's right!" A girl who appeared to be wearing a pilot outfit said "We've been here for a while. I was like the first person here and it was super lonely!"

A girl with dirty blonde hair seemed somewhat annoyed by the bubbly pilot girl "Yeah, she was here when I got here, and she wouldn't shut up…"

"Ladies, ladies!" A boy with black hair put his hands on their shoulders. "Try and get along"  
The dirty blonde girl remove the guys arm "If you want to live, I suggest not doing that… ever again."

The boy did finger guns as he slowly walked away "Got it!"

"So, no one knows why we are here?" Nonam asked.

"If we knew, we would have been talking about that" The boy with the sheath said.

"Understandable… Wait… are you all Ultimates?" Nonam asked.

A boy who had been sitting in the corner, curiously looking at something, stood up and tilted his head "It would appear so" He smiled. So pure.

Another boy who was sitting down in front of the stage rolled his eyes. He wore a maroon shirt and had black hair. "That's about the only thing any of us have in common. But that's not the time to speak about this." He stood up. "And I would suggest to find a way out, but I already tried. All the doors leading to the outside are barricaded. Including the windows."

An auburn girl shook her head "Well maybe you simply didn't look hard enough"

"Someone like me wouldn't have missed something"

Nonam was kinda overwhelmed by all of these people

"Well…" A small little girl said. "I did find something in a classroom…" She twiddled her thumbs "The window there wasn't barricaded.

"I thought you said you checked everywhere?" The auburn girl smirked.

The maroon shirted kid simply shrugs "All classrooms look the same. Who has time to look through all of them."

A boy who hadn't spoken piped up "Well then we should go check the classroom!" He had a sense of leadership to him.

Another boy ran over to the door that Nonam had previously entered through. "Well then! What are we waiting for!" He tried to open the door, however, it didn't want to open for him "Well ain't that strange" He tried again, but his hands slipped and he fell to the ground "I'm OK!" He yelled out.

A girl walked over to him "Are you OK?" She asked in a sweet voice.

"Yeah!" The boy said. Before trying to open the door again.

"Jesus Christ…" A voice said, but who said it wasn't importan- it was the guy with the sheath.

"Maybe… the door is locked?" The shy girl said.

"Well then how did he, and us, get in!" The boy besides Nonam said, maybe a little too loud.

"You're… you're right." She said shyly, retracting her statement.

"No, she might be right…" The girl with auburn hair crossed her arms."It could be locked from the outside"

"There's no way!" A loud girl said. She walked over to the door and tried to open it herself "Well! I definitely can't open it! So it has to be locked!" She grunted, a little angry. She calmed herself down before turning towards everyone else "So, any suggestions?"

In the corner, there was a girl who had spoken yet. She had purple hair and glasses "Well, it would make sense for it to be locked like that. Whoever kidnapped us probably wants us all in one room"

"Kidnapped?" The pilot gasped "What would they want to do with us?"

The girl with glasses and purple hair shrugged "Beats me, despite you being Ultimates, there isn't much things interesting about you people."

"That includes you too" The maroon shirted kid crossed his arms.

She rolled her eyes "Oh please, I'm leagues above any of you. Don't compare me to you"

"Well obviously, not, because you are here!" The boy started to raise his voice.

The boy with the hat stepped in between them both "Please, try not to fight" He smiled at them both.

"Stay out of this kid!" The boy glared at him. "You don't want to mess with me!" He reached his hands in his pocket to grab something.

The boy with the sheath instinctively reached for the handle of the sword he had "Don't do that" He said coldly.

The boy, noticing what he had his hand on slowly removed his own from his pockets "Whatever you say" He lifted his hands up in the air and walked away.

"Can we at least try and get along? We all seem to be in the same situation and none of us seem to know why we are here. So it would be better if we cooperate together!" The boy with the leadership said. On closer inspection, he wore some really nice clothes too.

"I agree!" The sweet girl said. She was holding her hands in front of her.

"So are we sure that none of us remember what happened to us?" The boy asked, trying to get as much information as possible out of everyone.

"Look, if any of us remembered. We would have said it" The boy with the sheath glared at him.

The boy with the hat seemed to be eyeing the place around. "Do you guys hear that…?" He said softly.

The shy girl slowly nodded "Y-yes… I'm not the only one it seems…"

Nonam looked around the room "It's… coming from the stage at the back of the gym!"

Everyone slowly turned towards the stage, a noticeable noise was heard. After a few more seconds. Something popped out from behind the podium. "Hellooooooooo and welcome everyo*ne!" It was a… bear?

"What the hell is a bear doing!" The boy with the sheath asked.

"Well, it appears to be talking" The not so bright boy said.

"That's not what I me- You know what, never mind" He sighed.

The boy with the hat tilted his head left and right to try and look at the bear "Well it's definitely not a real a bear"

"I'm surrounded by idiots" The purple haired girl said. "What do you want?"

"Whaaat? No greeting your headmaster?" The bear said "That's not how students should act! You should look up to me!"  
"H-headmaster?" The shy girl said.

"Well what else would I be!" The bear said angrily.

"Who are you?" The auburn girl got straight to the point.

"Well, you may all refer to me, as Monokuma! I'm the reason you are all here!" The bear laughed a little.

"You fuck!" The maroon shirted kid yelled out.

"Oh? You are the reason why we are in such a particular situation?" The boy with the crazy eyes leaned forward a little before standing up straight again "Oh well" He shrugged. "What use to you have for us?"

"What use? Well, there's plenty of use!" Monokuma said "Just you wait and seeeee!"

One of the girls clenched her fist "Get us the fuck out of here! You piece of shit!" She was breathing heavily before she started to calm herself down "My bad…"

"You say you are our headmaster?" Nonam crossed his arms "What kind of headmaster is a bear?"

"Well, me of course!" Monokuma said.

"That, doesn't quite answer the question" Nonam took a few steps forward "Why do none of us remember anything?"

"Well that's obviously because you acquired amnesia!" Monokuma giggled and covered his mouth. "I had nothing to do with it!"

"For all of us to seemingly forget what happened to us, it doesn't make any sense!" The girl with the glasses frowned "So of course you had something to do with it!"

Monokuma shrugged "Hey, maybe I did! Who knows!"

The boy with the nice clothes took a few steps towards Monokuma "Well, what do you intend to do to us!"

"I don't plan on doing anything to you guys" Monokuma said "You will all do stuff to each other!"

The boy didn't seem convinced "What does that mean?"

"How many of you do you think will make it out?" Monokuma answered his question with another question.

The boy in the fancy closed seemed to get a little angrier "All of us!"

"Wrong!" Monokuma laughed "Only like 6 or 7 of you will survive!"

The boy with the weird eyes seemed a little angry "THAT'S ABSURD!"

"I don't really think so! Puhuhuhu!" Monokuma laughed.

"Hey you bastard! Why don't you tell us what you are planning!" The punk girl yelled out at him before trying to calm herself down.

"Well, I'm planning something I would like to refer as… the killing game" His red eye flashed a little. That can't be good.

"K-killing game?" The shy girl asked.

"A killing game!" Monokuma confirmed. He looked around at everyone else "Oh my! You all haven't even introduced yourself to each other! It will be a very confusing read!" And with that, Monokuma left the room.

A distinct clicking sound was heard and the dumb boy turned towards the gym doors "Hey! I think they are unlocked!" He tested out the doors and they did indeed open up, and, without any second thought, rushed out. Several people seemed to follow his lead, leaving only a few people behind.

Nonam watched everyone leave the gym, slowly shaking his head. _What the hell was going on_.

He was about to follow everyone when a hand grabbed him and stopped him "Where do you think you are going?" A girls voice said.

When he turned around to look at who it was, it was the girl with auburn hair. She had two nice twin tails.

"Well it would be advantageous to explore the school" Nonam said.

"Well why don't you take the time to talk to the people here?" The girl rolled her eyes, before smiling "Hi, I'm Arianna!" She extended her hand to shake his "I'm the **Ultimate Actor** "

Nonam slowly extended his hand and shook it "I'm… Nonam" He said somewhat shyly. "I'm the Ultimate… the huh… Ultimate…" He let go of her hand started to think for a bit. _Wait… what WAS my Ultimate talent?_

"Don't tell me you forgot!" Arianna crossed her arms.

"Oh! That's right! I actually took a sort of entrance exam" Nonam said.

"Entrance exam? Wouldn't that place you in the reserve sector?" She seemed pretty skeptical.

"Well, normally… but apparently I did so good I was moved to the main part of the academy… along with all the Ultimates" Nonam was now deep in thought.

"I, find that hard to believe" She said.

"I… I know it's not very believable. But I guess you could call me the **Ultimate Academic**? If that is a thing…"

"I mean, it could be" Arianna shrugged

Nonam started to think "So I guess it would be good to meet everyone else who is in this same situation as us…"

She slowly nodded "Yeah…" She looked around the gym and spotted the only other person who hadn't left the room. "Well we should at least start with him over there."

The boy looked up, noticing that he was being spoken about. He eagerly walked over to them and waved "Hello!" He tilted his head a little, his hat staying neatly on his head. "I should probably get to introducing myself" He tilted his head the other way "I'm Tristan Everton, I'm the **Ultimate Animal Caretaker**!"

"Ultimate Animal Caretaker huh?" Nonam seem intrigued.

"Yeah, I got the title after single handedly helping a few animals from extinction" Tristan said proudly.

Arianna frowned a little "I didn't do something has good as that to get my title. I just got lucky and landed a role in a top play and soon I was well known…"

"Hey, better than writing a test" Nonam rolled his eyes.

Tristan tilted his head "No matter how we all became Ultimates, we still became Ultimates. Meaning we have a lot of talent"

She sighed a little "Yeah, you're right. Well there's no point in staying in the gym. Let's go."

Tristan sat back on the ground "You two go on, I have other stuff to do" He took off his hat to reveal two mouses were hidden under it.

"Where did you…?" Arianna wanted to ask but Nonam had already started to leave.

The two made it out of the gym and started looking around for other people to talk to. Luckily they found someone roaming around the hallways.

A girl who wore somewhat loose clothes and had a punk look to her was reading some of the posters on the wall. She wore a black beanie hat on her and also had a necklace. While reading the posters, she cursed under her breath. She didn't seem to have noticed the two yet.

"Hey." Arianna said softly.

No reaction

"HEY!" She yelled a little louder.

This, caught her attention "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST SHIT!"

"I think you got her attention" Nonam said

She turned to face them both, a little angry "Don't sneak up on me like that!" She said angrily before calming herself down "Sorry...I guess I really so lash out at people" She said shyly.

"Forget about that, who are you" Arianna got straight to the point.

"Oh! Right! I'm Catrina Rwuicks and I'm the **Ultimate DJ**!"

"Well that's an interesting title." Nonam said without much emotion in it.

Arianna smirked a little "You'd probably be able to liven up any party you go to!"

Catrina laughed a little "That's right, I've been invited to many parties before because of my title! I'm basically the life of the party!" She giggled. "So if you need me for anything! Feel free to call me!" She handed them both a business card.

Nonam shook his head "I don't think that will be necessary-"

"TAKE THE DAMN THING!" Catrina yelled at them.

They both took the card and started to walk away.

"Huh…" Arianna said as they walked away "She's weird…"

"Yup…"

After a bit of walking, they encountered someone else. He was the boy with the sheath from earlier. He seemed like he was talking to someone. "Alright, first of all! Taking pictures of other people is kinda a dick move!"

"Well it's what I do!" A girl tried to defend herself "I am a journalist after all, once we get out of here, you better bet this is making the papers!"

When Arianna and Nonam walked closer to see who he was talking to, it was the girl with the red hair and the blue hat. She seemed to be wearing a sort of dress. Obviously nothing too fancy, but something that would be perfect for the summer.

As for the boy, he had on a blank shirt, although it wasn't actually blank, but Nonam couldn't see the motive on his shirt. He wore jeans and had light brown hair with nice blue eyes to sorta match.  
"Are you two fighting?" Nonam asked the two.

The boy turned to look at Nonam "Well yeah, she took a picture without permission.

And on cue, a bright flash could be seen with the sound that came with it.

After recovering from the flash, the boy turned angrily at the girl "See!"

She put away her camera. "Well what do you expect the **Ultimate Journalist** to do besides take pictures of an interesting story?"

"Ultimate Journalist, huh?" Nonam asked her.

"Of course~! I've been interested in it since I was a child. I would always take pictures and sometimes, it even made it onto the paper!" She giggled "The name is Marisa Campbell, by the way!"

The boy crossed his arms "And I'm Arti Fyshial. The **Ultimate Swordwielder**. Any swords in existence, I can probably use"

Marisa took another picture, this time of Arti's sheath.

This ticked him off even more "Alright! That's it!" He grabbed her camera and threw it in the air, placing a hand on the sword handle. He was probably going to cut it in half when it fell down to the perfect height. Although he never got the chance to strike at it.

Arti found himself on the ground, ouch.

Nonam stood where he used to be standing, holding the camera "Why must you be so quick to cause damage?" He gave the camera back to Marisa, who, upon taking it, took a few steps away from Arti.

Arti slowly got up and started to walk away, without saying much. He was not happy.

Nonam watched him leave and when he went to turn back towards Marisa, another flash happened.

Marisa giggled a little "Well, I'll be off too! I have to go find more things! This is going up on my blo-" She reached out for her phone and let out a scream.

Arianna cringed at the high pitch scream "What, did you lose a finger?"

Marisa started to freak out even more "My phone!" She yelled out.

"Calm down" Nonam said. "You must have dropped it"

She turned to face Arianna and Nonam "Well you two check for your phones!"

They both obliged and went to check for their phones before remarking it was missing.

"See? We all don't have our phones!" Marisa said worriedly "I'll go see about the others!" And with that, she ran off.

The duo stayed silent for a moment before Nonam spoke up "Why is everyone here weird?"

"Beats me…" Arianna mumbled. Soon, they both continued to walk around the school. Soon they arrived to what appeared to be a library. Once they both walked in, they saw two people. They were both blonde, however one had dirty blonde hair and she seemed frustrated, while the other seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she didn't want to be talked to "Is everything OK?" The blonde boy asked.

The girl was looking through some books, trying to ignore him "Yeah… yeah" She opened up a book, starting to read through it. When she realized it wasn't an interesting story, she threw it behind her, the boy, barely managing to avoid getting hit in the face. "You might want to watch out where you throw those"

She threw another book "Whatever"

Nonam caught this second book and started flipping through it "Well, try searching in a different section. This is a history type book"

The girl seemed even more annoyed "What will it take for you all to leave"

"We are just tryi-" Nonam started to say.

Arianna angrily walked over to the girl "Excuse me?" It would seem that she didn't like being treated like that.

The girl turned to look at Arianna, with a very annoyed expression "Can I help you?"

Arianna gritted her teeth and looked like she wanted to fight the girl, but of course she held back the urge to do so. "What's with your shit attitude!"

"My shit attitude? What's with your shit face?" The girl shot back.

Nonam took some cautionary steps back. The other boy, did the same thing.

Arianna was getting more frustrated as the argument went on "Look, bitch, I don't know who you think you are, but you aren't the fucking Queen!"

"Well neither are you, so you can take your ass and leave"

Nonam looked over at the boy "Is she always like this?"

The boy looked over at Nonam "I don't know, she didn't really want to talk much to me. Oh! I'm Christopher Hide by the way. I'm the **Ultimate Lucky Student**!"

"Lucky Student? That's a talent?" Nonam asked.

"W-wha? Of course it's a talent! Or else I wouldn't have been chosen!" Christopher tried to defend himself.

"Riiiight" Nonam brushed off Christopher's talent and looked back at the argument and holy shit, books were flying.

"Look! You have to believe me when I say I'm luck-" Christopher got hit by a book before he could finish his sentence. Yup, luck.

Nonam decided to step in and got in between the two girls "Alright! That's enough!" He turned to look at the girl. "Me and Arianna are just going around trying to get to know everyone!"

"Terra Rea, **Ultimate Rebel** , that should be enough!" She broke her hand free from Nonam and walked out of the library.

Nonam shook his head and headed out of the other exit of the library, Arianna following close behind "Just so you know, I would have kicked her ass!"

"Yeah yeah…" He rolled his eyes.

They walked for a bit more before hearing some mumbling and some giggling. Arianna walked over to where the sound was coming from and it was the the cafeteria. Inside, there was a boy and a girl. A girl with colourful hair and a boy with black hair. The girl, on closer inspection was wearing a uniform of sorts. Not like military, but more like a pilot uniform. Although it seemed to also be too small for her. The guy was about 5 inches taller than her, with just a little over 6 feet tall. The guy also seemed to be flirting with the girl, who also didn't seem to mind and was playfully flirting back.

"We're here for not even an hour and you two are already flirting?" Arianna asked, unimpressed.

"Well, what did you expect? I am the **Ultimate Flirt** , after all" The boy with the black hair said.

The pilot girl smirked "He has such a way with words" She giggled. She stood up from sitting on the table and stretched "Although he is going to need to try harder if he wants me" She winked started to walk away "I'm Delilah Lyi! I'm the **Ultimate Pilot**! Flew my first plane at the age of 12. Scared the craaaap out of my parents" She giggled before walking out of the cafeteria.

The boy watched her leave, kinda entranced by her. He shook his head and looked at Arianna and Nonam "Well, I guess I should say my name! The name is Chase Snips!"

"So, apparently you are just the thing for the ladies?" Arianna rolled her eyes.

Chase smoothly walked over to her "Well of course I am, I'll make you feel good all ov-" He never got to finish.

Arianna slapped him across the face "How about no…" She said coldly. "Come on Nonam, let's go!" She started to walk away.

He couldn't do anything BUT oblige to her. They both started to walk around, maybe a little uneasy because everyone around here was kinda weird in their own rights. Soon they found someone they hadn't talked to yet. He had a weird assortment of hair colours. With white, grey, and black. His whole appearance seemed somewhat intimidating. When he sensed people walking, he glanced over at Nonam and Arianna, his cold dark eyes gazing into the depths of their soul. It was hard to tell what colour his eyes were, but they were definitely unnatural. He stared at them for a bit without saying anything.

"Huh…" Nonam started to say.

He quickly realized how weird he looked and stood up straight "Oh! Sorry! My bad! I guess I just got so use to watching people I forget to talk sometimes" He laughed a little.

"What do mean by watching people?"

"Oh! I guess that does sound a little creepy if I say it just like that, sorry, that was not my intention. I am the **Ultimate Psychologist**. I actually helped do a lot of mental tests on the people who went to the school, including helping give Ultimate titles based on personality and not talent themselves. The name is Xi Loung, but you can call me Xi Loung"

Chase smoothly slid into the scene with finger guns pointed at Arianna. "And you can call me anytime"

It a matter of seconds, Chase had already been punched away.

"Well, alright Xi, do a test on m-" Arianna started to say.

"You became an actor not only on the fact that you got lucky, but also the fact that you are two faced and you found it easy to put on a mask and pretend to be someone else, which is why acting is so easy for you. Eventually you picked up fame with it and you never let it go, and even now, you hide behind a mask of your own creation" Xi said pretty quickly.

Arianna froze and had nothing to say.

Nonam looked at her curiously. _Was what was said, true?_

"None of that is true!" Arianna said angrily, huffing a little.

Xi smirked deviously "I speak only the truth" He turned around to start to walk away "Sometimes it might be hard to grasp!"

Arianna looked like she wanted to kick his ass, but luckily, thanks to Nonam, she didn't have the chance "Let's keep looking!" He told her.

"Fine…" She mumbled to herself before following Nonam. Soon, they found themselves outside a classroom with the door slightly open. When they peered inside, he saw two other students, one was a short black haired girl, the other was the boy with the maroon shirt. "I thought you said you saw a window here!" The boy said.

The girl squeaked a little "All… the classrooms look the same!" She tried to defend herself.

The boy sighed "Yeah, I guess you are right.

Nonam opened the door to step in and they both turned to look at him. "Oh, hey, you're the boy that arrived last" The maroon kid said "I guess I should introduce myself since I didn't back then. I'm David Talon, the **Ultimate Blacksmith**."

The girl kinda hid behind David before getting out into the open "And… I'm Eliza Dalton… The… the… **Ultimate Chef** " She blushed a little, she was shy and insecure.

"Well she was saying this classroom had a window, so she must have been mistaken" David crossed his arms

She seemed a little mad "Well… it's not my fault all classrooms look… the same…! And you even said it yourself!" Despite being insecure, she was trying to stand her own ground.

David glared at her "Using my own words against me?"

Eliza squeaked a little before taking a few steps back. "R-right…" She held her hands together.

He rolled his eyes and headed for the exit "Well I got better things to do then be brought around in circles" He passed by Nonam and Arianna.

Nonam looked over at Eliza "Are you OK?"

She squeaked again before nodding at them "Y-yes!" She smiled. "I… I should probably go too!" She quickly left the room, avoiding any eye contact, she was blushing from being so shy.

"Well that was a waste" Arianna commented before leaving the room to see if she could find

some other people to talk to.

"Look, we don't know what kinda situation we are in" The voice of a boy was heard. It was coming from the other hallway "There's no way this is a mere prank!"

"So what seems more logical, some force beyond our control managed to kidnap sixteen students and place them in a school, which they so happen to have to themselves. This isn't just any school! This is Hope Peaks Academy, nonetheless!" The voice is a smart sounding woman was also heard.

When Nonam and Arianna turned the corner and saw a black haired kid and a girl with purple hair and glasses.

"Well, this seems too large for a mere prank" The boy crossed his arms.

"Well even if it isn't a prank! There must be a more logical explanation than a mass attack like this that went unnoticed. There's no telling how long we've actually been here. But one thing's for certain. I feel older than the last time I remember." The purple haired girl said.

"Huh… Excuse me!" Arianna said politely, trying to get their attention.

The girl sent a glare towards Arianna before sighing "Yes?"

"We are just going around trying to get to know everyone" She smiled.

"Well, in those seem like it would make sense" The girl frowned.

The boy smiled "Well, I'll go first! My name is Gabriel Peterson! I'm the **Ultimate Politician**! I got that title by helping my dad make a lot of crucial decisions. Also because of my sense of leadership" Gabriel said proudly.

"Yeah, although that sense of leadership won't get me to cooperate. I've learned that people only get in the way of true talent." The girl crossed her arms "I'm Jenna Claws. The **Ultimate Scientist**. It's pretty obvious how I could have gained a title like that. And if it isn't, it's not worth the effort to explain it."

"Ignore her" Gabriel said, trying to steer the conversation away from her "She's just on edge"  
Jenna started to walk away "Last I checked, you were on edge because you think we are all kidnapped"

Gabriel was going to say something but decided to stay calm. "So how has your greetings gone?" He asked politely.

"I think we've meet everyone now" Arianna started to count. "Wait, no, there's one more person we haven't meet… eight boys and seven girls…" She started to think "Who haven't I talked to…"

Suddenly, someone was standing between them "Have you two been roaming around the school together? How cute!" A female voice said.

Nonam almost jumped out of shock.

Arianna turned to look at the girl "Who the hell are you?"

She laughed a little "I'm Larissa Banks! Nice to meet you!"

"Convenient" Arianna mumbled. She already did not like Larissa, her personality was going to get on her nerves and she hated to admit it, but she probably had the better body.

Larissa looked at both Nonam and Arianna "You two are pretty cute together!"

Yeah, Arianna wasn't going to like her "What!" She said, mostly angry but with a faint blush.

"I think… that's a bad deduction…"

"Bad deduction!" Larissa asked "Well I hardly do those! I am the **Ultimate Matchmaker** after all! I rarely make mistakes. There's a 99% chance I will succeed!"

"Must be one of those lucky 1%" Arianna huffed.

"That doesn't seem very lucky to me" Larissa kinda pouted a little bit.

"Hey, not because I want to change the subject or anything, but maybe we should gather everyone and meet up at the gym again!" Gabriel suggested.

Nonam turned towards Gabriel "Well it would be better to have everyone in one place to discuss about stuff"

"Great! I'll go gather some people! You do the same thing!" Gabriel waved goodbye and walked away.

Nonam was about to say something but decided to keep his mouth shut. He turned towards Larissa and Arianna. "We should head back over to the gym, we talked with everyone that was here"

Larissa giggled a little "I'll leave you two alone!" She quickly dissapeared to head to the gym.

Arianna sighed "She annoys me"

"Everyone annoys you" Nonam said plainly, walking away.

Arianna was going to refute that but decided to stay quiet.

They soon gathered people and made their way to the gym.

"Alright… what did you gather us here for?" Terra crossed her arms.

Gabriel was standing on the stage "Alright, this can't be some prank that someone decided to pull, because it seems too elaborate for a silly prank"

"Well what other possibility is there?" Arti asked

"Some organization has kidnapped us!" Gabriel suggested.

"K-kidnapped us?" Eliza stuttered a little "Who would do that!"

Gabriel started to think deeply "I don't know… but it does have to do with this school. I can deduce this is indeed Hope Peaks Academy!"

"No shit sherlock!" David called out "The symbol is on the floor!" He pointed out.

Gabriel looked at the floor "It would seem my deduction was correct!"

"But who would want to kidnap us" Jenna brought up.

"Well, that's a more difficult question. All we know is that a bear named Monokuma did it" Gabriel kept going.

"That's right" Monokuma said, standing on the podium besides Gabriel.

This, of course, caught him off guard, and he fell of the stage "What the!"

"It is me! Monokuma!" The bear laughed maniacally "I kidnapped you all here! This is no prank, and you are soon to find out that fact!"

"Why did you kidnap us! You mention something about a killing game!" Gabriel slowly got up.

"That's right! The killing game!" Monokuma grinned. "You guys are all going to participate in a killing game!"

Chase gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, pointing at Monokuma "There's no way we would do something like that!"

"Oh? There isn't. Man, it's like you think that I would expect you too! Puhuhuhu" Monokuma laughed "Of course you are going to do it! Or else, you won't be getting out of here alive! Or even dead, your bodies will eternally trapped here. To suffer forever!"

"Bullshit!" Arti cried out.

"T-there's no way any of us would kill!" Eliza mumbled, but it probably went unheard.

"We aren't stupid, you know!" Arianna crossed her arms.

"Although, it would be an interesting experiment" Xi grinned, his crazy eyes, more apparent than before.

"You fucking psycho!" Catrina yelled at him.

"That's psychologist to you!" Xi corrected her. "So, Monokuma, is it? What makes you so sure we will kill each other?"

"It's human nature" Jenna spoke for Monokuma "I thought you of all people, would understand. You have sixteen people trapped in a certain area. The only way out is to kill. At first, no one wants to kill and things continue on as normal, but then, slowly, the mind starts to think, how long before some ELSE kills. Quickly, that raises the urge to get out, with killing being, once again, the only way else. You want to kill someone before you get killed yourself, right? That is probably what is going to happen here." Jenna trailed off, treating everyone like idiots.

"That is true" Xi agreed "But it would take several days or even weeks before someone does kill. Humans are easily manipulated, but, sometimes they need that extra… push."

"An extra push?" Monokuma tilted his head "Are you talking about a mooootive?"

"Precisely" Xi smirked.

"Who would want to give a motive to any of you! I say you can last, tops, three days without murder! Puhuhuhu" Monokuma laughed.

"Hey! We are not ones to just go and kill people!" Marisa snapped a little at Monokuma "We have morals"

Monokuma looked over at Marisa "You may have morals, but does everyone here, have morals"

Marisa gritted her death. Monokuma was right. She didn't know anything about these people. And some didn't seemed bothered, like Xi and Jenna.

"Oh? That shut you up?" Monokuma tilted his head "Good! Your voice was starting to get annoying!"

"Is there any consequence with killing anyone?" David asked

"Well of course, there's a catch! Killing iiiis illegal after all!" Monokuma laughed "After a victim has been found, you will have investigate the facility. After some certain time, a trial will be held for you all to try and figure out who the culprit is. I will henceforth refer to the culprit as the blackened. And the innocent as the spotless! Anyways, the spotless will need to discuss who they think the blackened is. This will all end in a vote, once it seems everyone has come to a conclusive agreement, that is. After the vote, if they guessed correctly, the blackened will be punished. However, if they guess incorrectly, then everyone BUT the blackened will be punished"

"W-what do you mean by, p-p-punished?" Eliza said weakly. She was scared to know the answer.

"Oh, don't worry! The punishment isn't anything bad!" Monokuma reassure.

Eliza took a sigh of relief.

"The punishment is… _**EXECUTION!**_ " Monokuma said.

Everyone froze and the air got very tense. No one could come to believe what they had just heard.

The first one to break the silence was Arti "F-FUCKING BULLSHIT!"

"It's 100% true! Would I lie!" Monokuma said innocently.

"Of course you would!" Arti barked back at him.

Monokuma seemed to ignore him "Have a fun filled killing game!" And with that, he vanished.

Gabriel regained his composure "Don't worry! Everyone! Everything will be OK! If we stay cal-"

"Why don't you shut the fuck up you twit!" Catrina yelled out before covering her mouth "I mean…" She calmed herself down "How do you expect us to stay calm in a situation like this?"

Gabriel started to sweat as he thought of something to say "I know it's hard to stay calm, but we all must think of something, we can't let him play around like this!"

Terra started to head over to the exit

"Terra!" Gabriel called out "Where do you think you are going!"

She slowly turned to look at Gabriel "I'm leaving, I don't want my potential last few days around people like you" And with that, she left.

"I… I don't feel safe here…" Eliza squeaked and she quickly left the room.

"Guys… Please…" Gabriel pleaded a little.

Chase shook his head as he also left.

Soon, all that remained were Arianna, Arti, Delilah, Gabriel, Jenna, Nonam, and Xi.

"Welp! You tried your best!" Arti said with a smirk "Better luck next time!" He started to leave.

"Stop!" Gabriel said, somewhat coldly. "If everyone keeps leaving. Then that won't help prevent people from dying. As a leader, it's up to me to make sure that doesn't happen. I don't want to be in a situation like this." He started to walk towards Arti, who had stopped "You think I want this! No, I don't! This is not something anyone would wish fo-"

Xi whistled innocently.

"This is not anything anyone but that guy would want!" Gabriel corrected himself.

"I'm only interested in seeing how people's morals become twisted." Xi tried to defend himself.

Gabriel decided to ignore him "So please, try and help out"

Arti turned around to walk away "People like you are going to be the first to go." He gripped onto his sword handle "I would know…" And with that, he walked out.

The gym fell silent.

One could hear a pen drop.

Gabriel sighed.

You could practically feel the despair, filling up the room.

Hope Peaks Academy.

Where Hope goes…

To die.


	2. Chapter 1: Life of the Party -Daily Life

It had been one day since everyone woke up in this hell hole of a school. Tensions were high and people were not quick to get along with each other. No one could trust each other. Not with what was said yesterday. They tried to avoid each other, they mostly didn't want anything to do with one another. If someone was in the cafeteria, people would avoid it. It was a nightmare.

.

.

.

Nonam was lying down on his bed in his room, he had found it after everyone had left the gym. Gabriel had also left, but it didn't seem like he was giving up, just trying to think of another game plan to try and get everyone to cooperate. But who would? And why would they? They had no reason to even do anything. They were scared to be around everyone, no matter how friendly they truly were. Because Monokuma was right. What were their morals? How strong were they? Would their morals last? There was no proof that they could even withstand any pressure at all.

Nonam was alone with his thoughts for the time being. He was probably going to be alone for a lot longer, had someone not knocked on the door. Curious, but also cautious. He slowly stood up and walked over to the door. He slowly opened it, but upon seeing who it was, he opened it fully. "Yes?"

It was Marisa who was standing there "Gabriel sent me to get you, he wants to bring a few people to discuss! People he know would listen to what he has to say"

"I'm assuming you are one of those people?" Nonam deduced.

She slowly nodded "He seems like he knows what he is doing. I was… just overwhelmed yesterday so I left" She admitted.

"Who else is there?" He asked.

She started to think a little bit "Gabriel didn't actually tell me, he only sent me to get you. But I'm pretty sure Arianna and Xi are going to be there"

Nonam slowly nodded "Alright, I'll go" Nonam smiled at her "I don't really have anything better to do."

Marisa giggled a little bit "Well the meeting is at the cafeteria! It should start in ten minutes! Don't be laaaate!" She trailed off as she left.

Nonam shook his head a little before closing his door. He should probably clean himself up a little, he hadn't really done much but slept. _Why was stuff turning out like this…_ He changed his shirt before leaving his room. _The cafeteria, eh? That isn't too far from here._ He started to walk towards it, but he bumped into someone. That someone was Arti.

"Watch where you are going!" He said, pretty angrily.

"Well aren't you on edge" Nonam said to him.

Arti glared at him "Of course I'm on edge! One of us could die at any moment!"

He crossed his arms "Not if we all work together…"

"Pfft! Like that's ever going to happen!" Arti said before walking away.

Nonam frowned before continuing on his way. _Was it really not possible for everyone to work together? No, if everyone trusted in one another, it would be possible. He was going to prove that!_

Since he was thinking so much, he didn't realize when he had arrived to the cafeteria until a familiar voice greeted him "So happy you could make it Nonam!" Gabriel said with a smile.

"Of course I wouldn't miss it, we all need to think together to do this. He looked around to room and was surprised to see how few people were actually there. Arianna, Delilah, Gabriel, Marisa, and Tristan. That would make six of them in total. That wasn't even half of the people here.

"Is… this everyone?" Nonam asked.

Gabriel sighed sadly "Yes… everyone else either refused to show up or they wouldn't open the door."

"It would make sense" Marisa sighed "A lot of people are scared… Including me, but that doesn't mean I'll hide in my room!" She said confidently.

"What we need to do is find a way to get everyone to get along with each other!" Gabriel said.  
"Why not a sort of… party?" Arianna suggested.

"Even if we do a party! No one would show up!" Gabriel frowned.

"Well Catrina would go to a party" Arianna started again "And Eliza might be willing to make the food, so that's already two extra people we have. Chase doesn't seem like one to miss a party, and neither are the others"

"I, think a party would be nice!" Marisa chipped in. "If we do get everyone there, it would be a great way to get everyone to trust one another"

Gabriel sighed and went into deep thought. It was true, this could help people get along with each other. "Alright!" He said as he took out a phone like device.

"Wait…! I thought we didn't have our phones!" Nonam pointed out,

"Oh, Monokuma gave us these!" Gabriel told him.

Marisa took our hers to show Nonam, and it was the same that Gabriel had "See?"

Nonam slowly nodded and checked his own pocket, but, of course he didn't find anything. "Wait, where did he put them?"

"In our rooms!" Tristan said, speaking up for the first time. It seemed like he didn't really want to be there, but he wanted to support the idea of what Gabriel was trying to do

"Oh… I didn't really check my room that much…" Nonam admitted.

"Seems like a rash decision" Arianna shook her head.

"Well! As the bright colourful me! I'll go make some preparations!" Delilah giggled before skipping her way out of the room. She was actually really hot. But sadly for her, all three guys in the room were doing their own thing. Gabriel was sending messages to everyone, Tristan was sitting on the floor, and Nonam left to go get his phone. When he returned, he walked into Eliza, who squeaked loudly and ran away, heading towards the cafeteria. When he returned, he notice that she was trying to keep her distance from everyone, but Gabriel, that is.

"Y-you said you needed me?" She said shyly.

"Yeah!" Gabriel smiled at her, putting away his phone. "We are planning on throwing a party and we want you to make the food!"

"M-me… to make the food?" She tried to back up a little more but couldn't. "I… I guess I can!" Once she realized there was no way out of this, she gained a more confident feel to her "I did check the kitchen. And they seemed well stocked, even if we ate today and yesterday, food seems to continuously reappear" This was way different from what Nonam was used to seeing of her before.

"It must be Monokuma's doing…" Arianna crossed her arms.

"That would seem the most logical, even if it still seems illogical" Nonam thought for a few moments.

"I'm… I'm sure I won't use to much ingredients…" Eliza said.

Suddenly

Bear.

Monokuma was standing beside Eliza "The ingredients do indeed replenish on their own! That's all thanks to me!"

Eliza looked at Monokuma and freaked the fuck out.

Monokuma sighed "Is that really any way to treat your headmaster? I would understand if you reacted that way upon seeing Arianna, but me? Really?"

"Hey!" She yelled out, pretty angrily.

"Oh shut up! You know it's true!" Monokuma said to her. "Puhuhuhu! So? What's the party to celebrate? The killing game?"

"In your dreams!" Marisa put her hands on her hips "No one would ever celebrate the killing game!"

"I would!" Monokuma said "Not to mention the four of you who will be excited for muuurder! Puhuhuhuhu!" Monokuma laughed some more and vanished.

"I… I don't like the sound of this." Nonam said,

"Well we can't stop the party now!" Delilah yelled, having returned, with Chase, who seemed like he was tricked.

"This isn't what you said…" Chase said with a faint blush.

Delilah huffed her cheeks and turned to look at Chase "Oh shut up and suck it up!"

Chase rolled his eyes "So why is everyone gathered here…?"

"We are throwing a party tomorrow night!" Gabriel smiled.

"What? To celebrate the killing game?" Chase smirked, jokingly.

Gabriel was taken aback, but wasn't going to let Chase get the best of him "No, so everyone here can work together to get out!"

"Yeah, I know…" Chase rolled his eyes "I don't understand why you had to bring me here so early compared to everyone else…"

Delilah giggled "Because you were the easiest to convince" She gave him an adorable look before skipping off to go gather more people.

Of course, Chase watched her skip away because he's the type of guy to do that. He looked over at everyone else who was there. "Is this seriously all the people you have gathered so far?"

Marisa huffed her cheeks a little "Is there a problem with that?"

"Well, I mean, there's so little of you. What are we… some kind of Suicid-"

"I would recommend not finishing that sentence…" Someone said from behind Chase, holding a blade to his throat.

This, of course, freaked him the fuck out. Because at moments like this, you don't expect a fucking katana to be pressed against your neck.

Arti removed his katana and placed it back in the sheath "Alright… I'll participate in your stupid little party. But this is as much cooperation you are getting from me while we stay here!"

"That's all I need" Gabriel smiled.

Nonam frowned a little, for someone who didn't want this party at first, Gabriel seems way more eager about it. What was he planning to do…

Gabriel thought a bit "Everyone else should be showing up soon, I did sent a message to everyone else that wasn't here. And Delilah has gone to collect some other people who haven't touched their phone."

.

Soon, the room filled up with everyone that was trapped her. Everyone, but…

"I'm guessing you couldn't get Terra…" Gabriel frowned.

"Well it's a hell of a lot easier getting guys to come!" Delilah crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes… understandable…" Gabriel said, sighing a little.

"Leave this to m-" Chase started to say.

Somehow, everyone in the room said no, in unison.

"Rude"

Xi shook his head "What's this I'm hearing about a party? I didn't think you would lose your mind this quickly…" He was referring to Gabriel.

"Actually, this was Arianna's idea…" He corrected.

Xi looked over at Arianna, looking deep into her eyes "So you listened to what the two faced bitch said?"

"TWO FACED BITCH?" Arianna said angrily

Xi chuckled a little "I speak only the truth…"

"Hey! No fighting!" Gabriel yelled out, trying to keep the situation under control.

"Pfft… even with trying to be a leader, you can't seem to keep everyone under control" Jenna rolled her eyes.

Gabriel tried to keep his calm "This would be going so much better if people actually cooperated!"

Christopher looked at Gabriel and then at Xi, and Jenna "You two aren't exactly making it easy for him…"

"Shut up" They said in unison.

"Alright" Christopher said.

Gabriel took a step forward "Disagreeing like this will result in nothing but more problems for all of us!"

Xi crossed his arms "Fine…"

"Would it be such a problem to at least also have meals together? Think of it this way! If we are all together, no one would dare murder" Gabriel started to deliver a confident speech. "The more we stick together, the least chance we have of getting murdered!"

Arti sighed, he had to admit, it was true. Being alone in your own room wouldn't do any good anyways.

Catrina nodded before speaking up "Plus! All you fuckers better be there tomorrow night! Since I'm in charge of the music, I won't let any of you miss it!"

"Well, good luck convincing me…" The voice of a girl said. When everyone looked to see who it was, it was Terra.

"Oh! Terra! Glad you could join us!" Gabriel said.

"Oh, I didn't come here to talk about the party. I only came here to get food" She crossed her arms. "If you are going to have a meeting, at least have it somewhere like the gym" She walked over to the buffet table and started to fill up a plate.

Delilah coughed a few times before putting on her energetic face "Come on Teeeerra! The party is going to be niiiice!" She giggled.

"Not interested…" She made her plate and left

Gabriel sighed and looked at everyone "Well, the set up for the party will start tomorrow. So anyone is free to help me. For now, you may all leave and head back to your rooms" He seemed kinda defeated. It was understandable, no one really want to listen to him.

Soon, the cafeteria emptied up.

.

Nonam did like the others and headed back to his room to think. After a bit of thinking, he got up from his bed and thought it would be better to talk to people.

With that, he opened his door and walked out. The party was happening at the gym, wasn't it? He decided to go check out the gym. When he got there and opened the door, he was blasted by blaring music.

"Catrina! Too loud!" Gabriel yelled.

She removed her headphones after turning down the music "WHAAAAT?"

"Too fucking loud!" Arianna yelled back.

Meanwhile, Christopher was on the ground.

There was a moment of silence. "WHAAA-" Catrina started to say before Arianna angrily marched over to Catrina.

"Woah! Don't have to be so hostile!" Catrina shouted out.

"You don't have to fight her" Gabriel said.

Arianna sighed and stopped.

"Alright, I'll play it less loudly…" Catrina sighed. She looked up and saw Nonam "Oh hey! Another person!"

Arianna turned towards Nonam and smiled softly "Oh! Hey Nonam, we are just testing out the sound system for tomorrow!"

"I… noticed" He said, looking at Catrina.

"IT WORKS PERFECTLY!" She yelled out at them.

"Maybe a little toooo well." Christopher said.

"Well, as long as it works, it shouldn't be a problem." Gabriel said.

"So… do you need help with anything?" Nonam asked.

Gabriel started to think "Well, not at the moment, tomorrow we are going to move the stuff out of the gym. And I think Marisa and Eliza are currently in the kitchen, thinking of what type of meals to make"

"I can't wait to see what they cooked up!" Christopher said happily.

"Well, Eliza is the Ultimate Chef, I'm pretty sure she'll make a delicious meal!" Arianna smiled.

Gabriel turned towards Catrina "Alright! Try it again!"

"On it!" Catrina yelled out. She tried again, only to yield the same result. Blaring music started to play. She quickly stopped it. "What the fuck is even the problem!"

Nonam started checking the cords to see where it was connected to. Once he saw the speaker he crouched down in behind "Someone played around with the settings" He sighed

"What? Fucking bullshit!" Catrina yelled out, hoping down to go inspect it. "What kind of asshole does this!" After fiddling around with the settings, she headed back to the sound board and tried it again.

"WAIT!" Gabriel called out but it was too late.

However, blaring music didn't play. Yes, it was loud, but it was a good type of loud.

"Oh…" He said.

"See! This if fucking perfect!" She smirked.

Arianna smiled at both Catrina and Nonam, before frowning at Catrina, because she was still mad.

"Alright" Gabriel crossed his arms "I think that's it for today…"

"What!" Catrina puffed her cheeks "I finally got it working and you are calling quits now!"

"Well you can keep fiddling around with the settings to get the sound right?" Gabriel said "But I have… other things to do"

Catrina sighed "Fine… I'll see if I can get other people to help!"

Gabriel waved goodbye to everyone and left the room.

"So, what else needs to be done today?" Nonam asked Arianna.

She started to think "I think Gabriel just wanted to get the sound system up and running"

"Hmm… so no more help is needed?" Nonam said sadly.

Arianna sighed "I'm afraid not…"

Christopher stretched a little "Even if we are throwing a party, doesn't mean we shouldn't find a a way out! I'm going to go check around the school a little…" He walked out of the gym.

Arianna sent Nonam another smile before leaving.

He sighed before leaving the gym himself, with the noise of music being blasted in the gym.

.

He was in his room for about an hour when he looked at the time. Eh, there was still some time before nighttime. Maybe he should go exploring a little more. He got up and opened his door. He was going to see if Arianna was around, except he heard a voice coming from a classroom that he was passing by. Curious, he slowly peered in.

"No one will believe you anyways…" David sighed as he spoke.

Nonam open the door slightly more to see who he was talking to. It was no one. More than that, David was playing around with a knife in his hands.

"And if they do believe you, they won't trust you anymore" He sighed again.

"Huh…? David…?" Nonam stepped into the classroom.

This clearly caught David off guard, as he dropped his knife and almost fell off the table he was sitting on "Jesus Christ!" He turned to look at Nonam "Nonam? What the hell are _you_ doing here!" He stood up and started walking towards him.

Nonam felt pretty intimidated at the moment "I just… heard you talking and wanted to know who you were talking to!"

David glared at him, crossing his arms "I wasn't talking to anyone."

"Well, yeah, you were talking to yourself" He said.

"Nor was I talking to myself!" David corrected, although it was a lie.

"Then why did I hear you talking" Nonam countered.

He gritted his teeth "You have only been here for a day, and you have already started to go crazy? That doesn't look good for you!"

Nonam narrowed his eyes "You said something about nobody believing you or trusting you. What's that all about?"

David closed his eyes "Like I said, you were hearing things"

"And what about the knife?" Nonam pointed out.

"This?" David said as he picked it up and twirled it around "It's the first thing I made as a Blacksmith"

Nonam started to think for a bit "How many blacksmiths carry around the first thing they made?"

He put his knife away, feeling like he got personally attacked "Well it's because it's precious to me!"

"Also, should you really be carrying that around at a time like this?" Nonam crossed his arms.

"Fuck you, I can protect myself with this if someone attacks me. I'm not stupid enough to go out and kill someone!" David headed towards the door "Now I'm going, don't follow me!" And with that, he left the room.

Nonam sighed and decided to leave the room too. Staying here wouldn't do any good anyways.

.

When he made it back to his room, it was already nighttime and a TV screen in his room lit up.

Monokuma was on the screen, sitting in a large chair "This is an announcement! It is currently 10 pm! Which means, I recommend you all go to bed! There's no rules about going out at night. You are free to do so. However, that might increase your chance of someone killing you! This is the killing game after all! Puhuhuhu!" Monokuma laughed, before turning off the screen.

Nonam sighed and plopped down into bed. The party was going to be tomorrow night. Was everything really going to be OK after that? Well, he shouldn't be thinking about that right now. He should be getting some rest. He slowly closed his eyes and let sleep take him away.

.

"Hey…" A voice called out to him. There was a long pause of silence before another "Hey!" Could be heard, this one a little louder. Nonam opened his eyes, but saw only darkness in front of him, stretching on forever.

"Don't worry…" The voice said. "There's a way out of all of this. I don't know how, I don't know when. But I feel confident that you can do this. You have the powers to stop this game. This is the first of many, you can do this!" He tried to look around in the darkness for whoever was talking, but he saw nothing. Soon, a bright light happened and a doorbell sound could be heard.

.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

Nonam awoke with a startle at the noise, he looked around for the source of the noise. It was coming from the TV, which suddenly turned on, revealing Monokuma.

"Good morning everyone! It is currently 8am! So wake up and get ready for your daily day! And don't forget about the party tonight! How do I know about the party? Well, I am Monokuma, after all! Puhuhuhu!" And with that, the TV screen turned off.

Nonam slowly sat up on his bed and sighed. He was still stuck in whatever this hell hole was. And it seemed like there would be no way out of here for a while. He got up and went over to his bathroom, to take a shower and get ready to go have breakfast.

Soon, once he was done, he grabbed his Monophone and walked out of the room. Soon making his way to the cafeteria. He expected to find the people who were OK with cooperating to be there, but he didn't expect… this!

Everyone was actually there, even Terra, although she kept to her own little corner, away from everyone.

Arianna looked up and saw Nonam. She motioned him over.

Complying, he walked over to her. "What's everyone doing here?"

She kinda shrugged and took a bite of some eggs. "I don't know, but apparently Eliza made some practice food to see if she still had what it takes to make the food for the party. And it's really good. So everyone wants some"

"Eh, all it takes is food, apparently" Nonam rolled his eyes a little.

"It would seem so" Arianna smiled. "Oh, I made a plate for you! I didn't know what you wanted, so I got a little of everything." She placed a plate in front of him.

Nonam smiled softly, sitting down beside her "You didn't have to"

"Well, to be fair, if you didn't show up. I was going to have it for myself" Arianna admitted.

"Figures" Was all he said. "So, are you going to help Gabriel set up the gym?"

She thought for a moment "I was, but I have other things to do at the moment. So I had to decline…"  
"What are you doing?" Nonam asked her, a little curious.

"I… just have to do some stuff" She smiled at Nonam. She finished eating and stood up "I better get going now!" She quickly left, leaving Nonam alone.

 _Why is she acting like this…_ Nonam shook his head and finished his meal. He then left to head back to his room.

.

He was in his room for a while before deciding he should do something, deciding this. He got up and exited his room. _Maybe I should go check out the kitchen. It's one of the only rooms I haven't checked out yet._ With that, he made his way over to the kitchen. The first thing he was greeted with was the smell of something delicious. Someone rushed by him, it was Eliza, carrying a bowl of something.

"We… have to hurry up. A lot of these recipes take a while to make, and if we want it to be ready by the time the party starts! We… we… need to do our best!" Eliza was telling some people.

This was weird, this was totally different from her shy self. She still had problems being in full control, but she didn't stutter as much as she would normally. She was completely in the zone. Nonam looked around the room and saw two people helping her out. First there was Marisa, who was reading over a list of ingredients and equipment

"We do have everything we need for now! It should be replenished in about half an hour" She said. She put the list down and turned on the oven to preheat.

It was looking at the final person, who was actually wiping some icing for maybe a cake, that he was a little confused.

"Arianna?"

She almost dropped the thing she was mixing up and turned to Nonam angrily "What are you doing here!"

Eliza stopped what she was doing and looked at Nonam "Oh! More help!" She handed Nonam some stuff "Start helping!" She kinda demanded it, but there was a squeak in her voice.

Nonam turned to look at Arianna and tilted his head curiously "What are you doing here?"

She crossed her arms angrily "I was just making something for myself for breakfast since all the food here sucked and Eliza caught me. Now she made me help her prepare food!" She didn't seem to please by that. But she went back to doing what she was doing.

Nonam looked at the stuff Eliza gave him and then looked back at her "Wait! I don't know how to cook!"

She sighed before thinking of something "There's always the dishes…"

"Wait… what?"

Eliza pointed to a huge pile of dishes that had stacked up.

 _How did I get myself into this mess…?_

Well, Nonam, not being able, to refute Eliza, got right to doing the dishes, even if he didn't want to. While doing them, he leaned over to Arianna. "Why are you angry at me for coming here?"

She had a faint angry blush and looked the other way "Because baking is stupid!"

Nonam looked at the dishes and went into deep thought "But, you seem to be good at it…"

"Doesn't mean I like it!" She was pretty angry now "And why did _you_ come here anyways?"

"Well…" He started "It was one of the few rooms I hadn't checked yet.

She closed her eyes in frustration before moving over to the other side of the kitchen, clearly, not wanting to speak to him anymore.

"I guess she's mad at you" Marisa giggled a little, placing more dishes beside Nonam. Greeeat.

"Yeah, tell me about it…" He sighed.

Marisa started to think "I don't know why coming here made her so mad. You two seem to get along a lot. Or maybe that's just my imagination…" Marisa started to grab some of the clean dishes "I'll need these…" She smiled and walked away with them.

Nonam sighed, _why_ _ **was**_ _she mad at me for?_

He was deep in thought when Eliza walked over to him "Be careful with the dishes! They do not replenish! I found that out the hard way when a plate broke" She sighed.

"Why aren't you shy in here?" Nonam asked her.

She seemed a little angry at that question, but blushed faintly "I'm just… more confident in the kitchen!" With that, she walked away, a little angry.

He sighed again. He was never going to be able to understand these people.

Much time had passed and Eliza and the others decided to take a lunch break. Nonam, not wanting to be in the crossfire again, grabbed some food and retreated to his room.

.

Nonam was lying on his bed again. The party was about in five hours. Would this really be enough to convince everyone to cooperate? Hopefully it was, but, he had his doubts. Well, since the party wasn't for another five hours. He might as well do something to pass the time… He left his room and headed over to the lab. That would be the last room he hadn't checked yet. He opened the lab, and, in the corner, Terra was working on something. _What the?_

Despite how she looks, she seemed to somewhat know what she was doing.

Nonam took a few steps towards her but never got the full way.

She let out a soft sigh "Please leave…"

"I don't have to!" Nonam crossed his arms.

"Yeah, but I would feel better if you did" She said coldly, although less coldly than her normal self. She was probably using her energy to pay attention to what she was doing.

Nonam looked at what she was making "What are you even doing anyways?"

"What the hell does it look like?" She added some stuff to the concoction, which made it form a cloud. She took a cautionary step back, making sure Nonam got away too.

"Are you making… a sort of poison?" He realized.

"It's not a poison!" She tried to defend herself. "Well, I mean…" She looked the other way "It might be. Too be honest I'm just following the instructions on the counter.

Nonam took careful steps towards it, reading the things "Huh, the name of the stuff is burnt off or something…"

Terra shrugged "It was like that when I got here…" She gave a sigh. "Not to mention that wasn't the only paper in this room" She pointed to a empty placeholder "There should have been one there. But it went missing."

Nonam started frantically searching the room in alarm "Don't you think that's cause to be worried?"

She smiled a little, something rare "Don't worry, there was nothing dangerous on it from what I remembered. Just some harmful stuff. The worst thing on there would only be able to knock someone out for a good 5 to ten minutes. So honestly, it's kinda worthless for any murder attempts. If anything, Gabriel probably removed it"

 _Why would Gabriel remove the none harmful one and leave the poison ones alone?_ "I find that hard to believe…" He said frankly "If he wanted to remove it, he would have removed all of them." He started to think some more. "Why are you making that anyways?" He pointed over to the thing she was making.

"This? I just got bored, that's all." She shrugged.

"Yes, because I too, make deadly poison when I get bored" Nonam shook his head.

She glared at him "Well there isn't exactly anything else to do in this place but wake up, eat, ignore people, and then sleep. I'm just trying to change up the routine a bit!" Terra was really on the defensive.

Nonam frowned, a little inconvenienced "You better not use it…"

Terra, trying to prove a point, dumped the poison down sink to get rid of it, probably killing whatever was living in there. Oh well. "There? See?" She dropped the flask in the sink, which shattered it. With that, she left the room.

Nonam sighed, shaking his head. He'd never be able to understand her one bit. Soon, he too left the room, heading back to his room. The party would be soon, and then hopefully everyone would get along after that… Nothing bad was going to happen… Nothing…

.

Nonam soon sat up on his bed and looked at the time. The party was starting in thirty minutes, so he should start heading there. He got off his bed and walked out of his room. He didn't see anyone in the nearby hallway. Shrugging, he made his way to the gym. When he opened the door, he noticed how different it looked from before. All the gym equipment was moved to make way for tables that were seemingly taken out of nowhere. Food lined up those tables, and boy did it look amazing. Figures the Ultimate Chef would be able to do this. Everyone was there, meaning he was the last one to arrive. Well, not everyone, but everyone who was going to show up was there. Terra wasn't there, but the odds of her showing up were already slim.

Arti was leaning against a wall with a cup of punch, looking at everyone else, he didn't want to talk to anyone but suddenly an adorable Larissa decided to disturb him. She started chatting with him, and he couldn't turn her away.

Eliza was walking around the tables, placing dishes everywhere. And boy did they all look good.

Arianna was actually still setting up some stuff around the gym walls.

All in all, it looked like everyone was having fun.

Gabriel walked over to the stage, upon realizing that everyone was here. "Hello everyone! I'm so glad you could all make it! I know it isn't exactly what you all wanted. But, we shouldn't let this situation get us down. We were given the stuff we need to live, so this shouldn't be a problem…"

Suddenly, the door opened and everyone looked at who entered.

"Oh… Terra!" Gabriel smiled softly. "You decided to come!"

She crossed her arms and looked away "Not like I wanted to…" She had a faint blush. "I only decided to show up because Gabriel would have pestered me about it forever…"

The room was kinda silent, but it finally got broken by a voice.

"Shiiiiip!" Larissa called out.

Terra sent her a death glare "Shut the hell up!"

"I was just saying" Larissa said innocently.

"Well, let's not make that stop the party!" Gabriel said with a smile.

Eliza slowly started to nod "Y-yeah! I m-m-made plenty of food for you all!"

"Just as I thought" Arianna crossed her arms "She's a wreck everywhere BUT the kitchen."

Eliza squeaked and ran off, presumingly to hide and maybe get food.

The party was actually in full swing! People were talking and actually getting along, Catrina actually rocked the sound system. No one complained about the music playing, which was a good thing.

Nonam was soon approached by someone "So, I don't believe you are the Ultimate Academic…" It was Arti. He was glaring at Nonam.

"I'm… I'm not" He admitted "But it's the only thing that makes sense. I remembered writing a test to get into the school…"

"Then it's simple, you're simply a reserve student someone mistook for an actual student." Arti said coldly "No other explanations"

Nonam frowned a little "Why did you find the need to come talk to me about that?"

"Hey! Blame Xi, he's the one who's been talking about being dishonest about their talents!" Arti said.

Nonam started to think "Who does he have in mind?"

"Hasn't told me anything besides that one of us is lying. I'm just trying to find out who that person is!" Arti exclaimed.

Larissa ran up to him "Hey Arti! I need your heeelp with something" She giggled a little.

"No…" He said coldly.

"Pleeeease" Larissa said in a cute voice.

There was like. No way anyone could say no to that.

Like

No way.

"Fine!" Arti said before walking away with Larissa, who mumbled something about a self ship, to no one in particular.

Nonam shook his head and went to get himself some food. The food smelled like heaven, since Eliza made it. He started stacking some on his plate.

Gabriel soon approached him "It seems this party is going good" He smiled.

Nonam slowly nodded "It would seem so…" Nonam looked at everyone who was eating. Pretty much everyone but Tristan and Eliza were eating. Eliza, trying to convince Tristan to eat, refusing to eat before everyone has tried her food.

Christopher was off in his own little corner. He was actually wearing his shirt inside out.

"Well maybe this is what all of us here needed…" Gabriel smiled.

"I have a question… Why did you didn't like the idea of a party, but then got onboard for it?" Nonam looked at Gabriel.

"That's…" Gabriel sighed a little "I don't know really…" He kinda lied, he did know, but it's not like telling Nonam would do anything.

Nonam glanced over at the clock, it was 8:59 pm. They still had an hour until nighttime. And even then, they could all stay here. The gym isn't closed at night.

 _ **Fsssshhhhh**_

A weird noise resonated inside the gym, and slowly, one by one, people were starting to fall.

Gabriel started to franticly look around "What's happenin-" He never got to finish his sentence as he fell to the ground with everyone. The last thing Nonam saw was Tristan and David collapsing.

Nonam slowly followed suit. The last thing he remembers is an indistinguishable voice yelling "You fuck!"

Suddenly…

Lights out…

.

.

.

A lot of time had passed, seemingly, when Nonam had regained consciousness. The first thing that was noticeable was the sound of distorted music coming from the sound system. He stumbled up, looking around, almost everyone else was passed out.

"What the fuck just happened?" David asked, somewhat pissed.

"I-I-I don't know" Eliza said shyly.

"Leave her alone…" Arianna sighed.

Nonam walked over to them, the music ringing in his ears. A lot of people were still knocked out from whatever it was that had knocked them out.

Arianna looked over at Nonam and frowned. It seems she was still kinda mad about the events at the kitchen.

David was getting pretty frustrated now "Someone go turn off the fucking music!"

Nonam scratched the back of his head. "I'll… I'll do it…" He made his way over to the stage. When he got there, he noticed that all the controls were kinda out of whack. It would make sense, Catrina passed out with everyone else and probably fell onto the sound system. He didn't adjust them yet because he didn't know how. _I should probably ask Catrina about that_. He walked around the corner to wake her up.

.

.

.

However, the sight was horrifying… amongst many scattered records, that are shattered, blood was everywhere. The victim had cuts everywhere. A shattered disco ball lie beside the person, right next to the head, which had a huge gash of blood seeping out of it. There, dead on the floor, lie the body of the Ultimate DJ, Catrina Rwuicks.

.

 _What the fuck is going on!?_

.

.

.

Fifteen remaining students...


	3. Chapter 1: Life of the Party-Deadly Life

_I… I couldn't believe what I had just seen. Why? Why did this happen? This party was supposed to make us all closer. Why! Why did someone have to die? None of this should have happened! This can't be real. But no matter how much I try and dispute it, there, Catrina lies in eternal sleep. Never to wake up again. If she died, that means… One of us had to have done it… And, I don't want to, but I will find out whoever did that!_

.

.

.

David sighed at the music "Nonam! What the fuck is taking so long!" When he heard no answer, he sighed and started walking towards where he was.

Eliza squeaked again and ran after David "Don't go on your own!"

 _Soon, they both reached the horrifying sight. I wanted to stop them, but my entire body was frozen from the shock. I was looking at a dead body!_

David froze upon seeing the body.

Eliza, however, didn't have the luxury of freezing and let all her own fear escape her at once. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The TV in the gym lit up, revealing Monokuma's sinister face "A dead body has been discovered! You will be given the time to investigate. Soon, a class trial will be head! Make sure you find the blackened!" He laughed as the screen faded.

"D-dead body!" Arianna said worriedly. "NO! THAT DOESN'T MEAN!" She ran over to where Nonam and the others were and stared, horrified, at the body. "Who would do this!"

Nonam kept looking at the dead body "One of us did this…" He said sadly.

"Yup!" Monokuma said, appearing behind the four people "But don't woooorry! You aren't on your own! I'm here to help!"

"And how do you plan on helping us out?" David crossed his arms.

"With _this_!" He pulled out an electrical device similar to a tablet "The Monokuma file!"

Nonam grabbed it and started to read it.

 **The victim is Catrina Rwuicks, the Ultimate DJ. She was discovered dead behind the sound system. The cause of death was blunt force to the head caused at 9:05 pm. The murder weapon is unknown.**

 _9:05 pm? The last thing I remember is…_

 _Nonam glanced over at the clock, it was 8:59 pm. They still had an hour until nighttime. And even then, they could all stay here. The gym isn't closed at night._

 _Which means the murder happened six minutes later!_

"Thank you, this should help us a bit" Nonam frowned. "Should we… start investigating the body?"

Soon, everyone else approached the body, those who weren't there before.

"What the hell!" Arti shouted out.

Jenna crossed her arms and sighed "You guys couldn't even get pass one party?"

Christopher, upon seeing the body, tried to walk backwards. However, he ended up tripping over himself.

Terra, despite her normally 'I don't give a shit' nature, was frozen in place. She couldn't believe what she just saw.

"Everyone!" Arianna said "Stay away! We are trying to investigate the body!"

Gabriel thought for a moment "We shouldn't all be investigating the same place, maybe there are some clues hidden around the school"

With that, people started backing away from the body.

Arianna sighed "I guess… it's time to investigate…" She frowned.

Nonam slowly nodded "Yeah. I guess it is.

Nonam knelt down in front of the body and started inspecting it. Like the Monokuma file had said, there was a big gash in her head, bleeding. _What could have caused this?_

Arianna started to think "The file said blunt force to the head… But… there's nothing like that around here…" She eyed the sound system "Why not the sound system?" She pointed out "It has blood on it…"

Nonam looked at the sound system and slowly nodded. The system had several lines of blood on it, but nothing concentrated "You might be right…" He went back to looking at the body and found several cuts all over her body "Why was she cut up anyways? We should have all been knocked out, so the culprit would have had no reason to do that…"

"Maybe they wanted to make it seem like that was the murder cause? Although that would be pointless if Monokuma just revealed the cause of death. But it's not like we had any way of knowing that…" Arianna was thinking too.

He shrugged a little and took looks at what was around her. There were multiple shattered records "What was these used for?" He tilted his head a little.

"Probably what was used to cut the victim up" Arianna pointed out.

Nonam went into deep thought again. "Hmm… you are probably right…" But something caught his eye "Wait, this isn't like the records. It's a different colour and texture…" He looked at it. "But I can't tell what it is…"

"Me neither…" Arianna sighed. "Maybe we could get info on people around here…"

Nonam eyed David and Eliza, who were still right next to the body. "You three were up before me, right?"

"Y-yes…" Eliza said "I was the first one up after everyone was knocked out. I woke up David since he was the closest to me at the time."

He turned to look at David "Is thi-"

"Yes" He said, his arms crossed. "She woke me up, so we know for a fact that I couldn't have done it."

"We… aren't accusing you…" Nonam sighed.

"Whatever" David rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't you all hurry up and investigate all the other places?"

Nonam shook his head and got off the stage.

Arianna followed suit "There doesn't seem to be much that is out of place here…"

Nonam approached the table with all the food to look at it. "Wow, a lot of food was taken already. At least the food didn't go to waste…"

"Did everyone have the food?" Arianna asked.

Nonam started to rethink of who had and who didn't have the food.

 _Nonam looked at everyone who was eating. Pretty much everyone but Tristan and Eliza were eating. Eliza, trying to convince Tristan to eat, refusing to eat before everyone has tried her food._

"I know Eliza didn't, but she wanted everyone to try it before her" Nonam said.

"So, who else didn't try it…?" Arianna asked

"Tristan…" Nonam started to walk over to Tristan, who was looking at some vent controls "Hey, Tristan!"

Tristan slowly turned to look at them, tilting his head. "Yes?"

Arianna decided to get straight to the point. "Why didn't you eat any food at the party?"

"Oh? That? Well, I'm partially vegetarian" Tristan admitted.

"Partially? How the hell can you be partially vegetarian?" Arianna asked, a little irritated.

Tristan started to think of a way to explain it. "Basically I need to know how the animal was treated for before it was killed for the meat. I'm not against eating meat, since other animals do it. But if they were malnourished while being raised, I don't want to support the people who raised the animals."

Nonam slowly nodded "Makes sense."

"No it doesn't!" Arianna yelled back.

"Either way, I brought my own food and took a few bites from it during the party" Tristan continued on.

Nonam, feeling down with this conversation, looked over at the vent system that Tristan was staring at. "What's this for?"

Tristan looked back at it and started thinking "It says it's for the vent, but it seems the internal clock is broken…"

"Broken?" Nonam asked, curiously.

"Yeah! It only shows 9 pm on it, but clearly it's about 9:30 pm now…" He sighed.

"That is strange…" Nonam nodded.

"I think we are done here" Arianna rolled her eyes "There's a vast gym to explore…"

Nonam reluctantly followed Arianna, who soon stopped in her tracks. "Why is there some string on the ground?" She picked it up to look at it.

"What kind of string?" Nonam asked.

"I don't know" Arianna sighed "But it's barely noticeable. It was only noticeable because it was on the ground"

"Although it is irrelevant… It is strange" Nonam started to think deeply.

"Well, I think that's it for the gym. Let's go check out other rooms, and see where everyone else is"

Nonam slowly nodded, heading towards the exit. But something, once again caught his attention.

The garbage bin was turned over.

"Huh…?" He walked over to it and opened it.

Inside, was a large katana.

"Wait… isn't this Arti's?" He tilted his head slightly.

Speaking of the devil…

"That's where it went!" Arti said angrily, suddenly appearing behind Nonam.

"You mean you didn't place it here…?" Nonam crossed his arms.

He took the Katana and placed it back in his sheath "As if, I'd throw it out."

"So how did it get there in the first place?" Arianna asked.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be as mad" He crossed his arms.

Nonam started to think again. "Why did you just now suddenly appear? Didn't you leave the gym?"

Arti shook his head "I just went over to the storage room connected to this room. To see if anything was missing…"

"Was anything missing?" Nonam asked.

"For the most part, everything was there. But it evades me how someone didn't notice that this was missing. There should have been a ladder, but it's not there"

"You mean an entire ladder is missing?" Arianna asked.

"No, just the first two rungs" Arti said "Of course the whole fucking ladder!" He soon vanished away.

Arianna crossed her arms, a little angry "What a prick…"

"Let's just go…" Nonam sighed, leaving the room. The next stop on their investigation was the lab.

Inside the lab, Terra was once again there. Looking through the stuff to see if anything is missing.

"Hey Terra, is anything missing?" Nonam walked beside her.

"No, but all the stuff gets replenished anyways, so it doesn't matter" Terra sighed.

"It replenishes, at least according to the rules over there…" She pointed out a list of rules.

Arianna walked over to the rules and started reading the rules.

 **Anything in this can and will be used in helping someone murder.**

 **Everything can be replenished after every hour.**

 **The lab is open at night.**

Arianna pondered for a few seconds "Hmmm…"

Nonam looked over at Terra "Did anyone else enter the lab?"

She shook her head "I was pretty much here all day. The only person I saw was you. Although I did leave before the party to get ready…" She admitted. "So someone could have come in after I left" She started to think. "But like I said, I was here all day. So maybe it was acquired yesterday."

"Possibly…" Nonam said.

"Hey Terra, what's supposed to be here?" Arianna asked her.

"That? Some poster, it was here on the first day but when I came in today. It was gone…" She sighed.

"Hmm…" Nonam started thinking. He walked over to the counter "And these marks… I don't remember seeing them"

Terra smiled softly "The stains were annoying me so I covered them up with the instructions"

Now that Nonam remembered, the stains were at the same spot that she was working at. But… why did she choose that spot of all places.

"Why are there gas masks here?" Arianna tilted her head.

Terra looked over at them and shrugged "Well, it would probably be wise to wear it when making half of these things"

Nonam nodded "You are right. That would make sense…" Nonam said

"Well, I think that's it for now…" Nonam sighed, leaving the room with Arianna.

They made their way to the cafeteria and quickly noticed something was wrong.

"What happened to the table?" Arianna ran over to it.

The table had broken in half, with something under it, but that wasn't the problem right now.

"Why is the table even broken in the first place?" Nonam started thinking. "This can't possibly have to withe the case…"

Arianna started removing to see what was under it. "A… ladder?"

Nonam helped move the rubble and looked at it confused. "Is this the ladder Arti was talking about…? What's it doing here?"

"I… don't know…" She frowned.

"Must be hard to miss something like that…" A voice said, sitting at a nearby table.

Arianna and Nonam turned to look at the voice and saw Xi.

"What does that mean?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"It means, if the ladder was there, how did no one notice it?" Xi smirked. "And what's with the broken table? You should solve that mystery eventually." Xi stood up and stretched a little before walking out.

Arianna crossed her arms angrily "I really don't like him…"

"Yeah, I noticed" Nonam walked over to the kitchen and opened the door.

Inside the kitchen, Christopher and Delilah were there.

"Why are you two here?"

Christopher was going to say something but Delilah spoke instead "We can't let the food go to waste" She giggled.

"Huh, yeah…" Christopher sighed "I found something that might be worth your while"

Nonam walked over to Christopher "What is it?"

He grabbed a vial of something and showed it to Nonam "I don't know what this is… but it was left in the kitchen…"

Nonam thought for a moment, looking at the vial. "Hmm…"

"It just seems weird. It doesn't seem to be something for the food."

Nonam looked at Christopher "I was meaning to ask, I passed out rather quickly, how long did you last?"

"Oh! I passed out pretty early quickly. When I woke up, everyone was already up again… When I passed out, I was alone at a table, so I guess no one went to wake me up" Christopher sighed. "Wish I could be of more help…"

"It's OK!" Nonam reassured "We will all have to do our all in the trial anyways!" Nonam said. He glanced over at Delilah who was eating a sandwhich.

"What about you?" Nonam tilted his head slightly.

She shrugged "I don't remember much. Although I do remember someone screaming.

 _Now that I think of it… there was a scream._

 _Nonam slowly followed suit. The last thing he remembers is an indistinguishable voice yelling "You fuck!"_

 _Suddenly…_

 _Lights out…_

"Yeah… I do remember that… was that possibly Catrina?" Nonam started to think.

Arianna rolled her eyes "It would fit her personality all right…"

"Yeah, at the time I didn't know who it was. But I'm most certain that it was Catrina…" Nonam said.

Arianna, coming to the conclusion that the kitchen wasn't going to have much left, so she left with Nonam.

The next stop was one of the classroom. Classroom 1A. Opening it, Larissa was in it. Writing on a piece of paper.

"Hey Larissa, what are you doing?" Nonam asked.

She almost dropped her pen and paper "NOT MAKING UP SHIPS!" She screamed out.

 _Yeah, really convincing_

"Aren't you going to help with the investigation?" Arianna asked angrily.

"Well I'm not exactly going to be a help. I don't even have a Truth Bullet" Larissa said.

"A what?" Arianna and Nonam said at the same time.

"Nothing!" Larissa giggled and ran out of the room, pen and paper in hand.

Arianna frowned and crossed her arms "Well that was weird."

They left the room and moved over to the next classroom. In side was Marisa and Jenna.

Jenna was holding a strange piece of poster.

"Isn't that from the lab?" Marisa asked.

"Yes, but I don't know what it's doing here…" Jenna sighed.

Nonam walked over to them both. "Let me see that!" He took the poster and started to read over it. "Yeah, this has to be the poster from the lab!" He looked at the bottom and noticed it was melted away, like acid hit it. "Hmm…"

Arianna looked at the poster too. "You said this was still there when you went to the lab?"

"Yeah" Jenna crossed her arms "When I went yesterday, it was there."

"So it must have disappeared in between when Jenna and Terra went" Nonam stated.

Arianna rolled her eyes "Or one of them is lying!"

Nonam wanted to say something but he couldn't Arianna was right. The culprit would lie to keep themselves safe. "We should go see some other places"

They left and went over to the last classroom, Classroom 3A. They opened the door and the only person in there was Chase.

Chase was looking around the classroom, probably looking for clues.

Probably.

"Hey Chase." Nonam said.

He didn't say anything, deep in concentration.

"Huh… Chase?" Nonam tilted his head.

Still no response.

"CHASE! JESUS CHRIST!" Arianna shouted, scaring not only Chase, but possible Nonam too.

"What?" He turned to look at Arianna.

Nonam took a deep breath and started to speak "I just wanted to see how your investigation was going…"

Chase crossed his arms "I didn't find anything yet. Well, anything but this" He pulled out what appeared to be string wrapped around something. "It's to hold string. Although it's probably useless" He sighed.

Nonam thought for a moment "Well, I'll make sure to remember it…" Him and Arianna started walking away.

"We should head back to the gym" Arianna suggested "We might have missed something."

On their way back, they ran into someone else. "Oh hey Gabriel!" She smiled "Find anything of use?"

Gabriel was lookng up at a vent. "Well this vent seems out of place. But that's just my speculation."

Arianna and Nonam looked up "Yeah…" Nonam said, looking at the vent that had the grid removed from it "It does look suspicious, but it's completely out of reach."

"Well there could be a way up there…" Arianna said.

Soon, a familiar dinging sound could be heard.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The TV screen lit up to reveal Monokuma's face.

"Well I hope you all had enough time to investigate! Because you know what time it is! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S trial time!" Monokuma laughed maniacally. "Go to the first floor elevator, make sure you are all there! Anyone who doesn't show up, will be _**PUNISHED**_! Have fuuuun!" And with that, the screen turned off.

"We should be on our way now…" Gabriel sighed.

The three of them walked over to the elevator, where everyone was already waiting. They walked into the elevator once it opened.

"I can't believe we have to do this…" Nonam said sadly.

"Well we only have ourselves to blame" Arianna said coldly "One of us did this!" She started to glare at everyone that was there.

The elevator ride was going on pretty long. How many floors were they going down? Four? Six? Ten? It felt like it was just stretching on and on and on! Like they were going deep into the crust of the Earth. Just when it felt like it would never stopped.

The elevator came to a halt.

The doors opened and everyone stepped out.

What was in front of them was 16 podiums all in a circle. With a master chair in the back, where Monokuma was sitting on a chair in the back "Hello everyone and welcome to the first trial! Please, take your respective podiums!"

Soon, everyone was at their respective podium. Although one was empty. The one meant for Catrina. Instead, a large X is crossed on her face.

 _One of us did this…_

Several pictures appeared.

One of Arti reaching for his Katana in his sheath

One of Eliza wearing a chef hat too big for her.

One of Terra, with her arms crossed, looking the other way

One of David playing around with a knife.

One of Jenna adjusting her glasses, clearly flipping someone off.

 _One of us did something so terrible…_

One of Arianna rolling her eyes.

One of Marisa writing things down in a notebook.

One of Tristan holding a mouse in his hands.

One of Catrina listening to headphones. Although this one is redded out.

One of Chase with his hands behind his back, acting chill.

One of Christopher looking worried.

 _One of us killed Catrina…_

One of Larissa holding her hands together.

One of Xi looking like pure malice with his crazy eyes.

One of Delilah with an adorable face, trying to be seductive.

One of Gabriel, covering his mouth, in deep thought.

One of Nonam, right in the middle, looking confident.

 _I will expose the killer!_

"So… what shall we commence with first?" Xi crossed his arms.

"I think a good place to start would be the cause of death…" Gabriel mentioned.

"Do we really need to go over that…?" Terra sighed, she already knew the cause of death.

"Well none of us knows that cause of death!" Gabriel said. "So I guess… let's start debating…?"

.

"Well clearly they had their head bashed against the audio system!" David said, scratching the back of his head.

"No, I don't think it was like that…" Gabriel started to think.

Christopher spoke up "What about the shattered records?"

"There's still that unknown material we don't know about" Jenna pointed out.

"I-I think that the shattered records were used to stab them to death" Eliza said nervously.

Nonam looked over at Eliza "That's not true. They couldn't have been stabbed to death. It says so right in the Monokuma file. Catrina died from a blunt force to the head. Didn't anyone read it?"

Xi shook his head "Not really, I can't trust Monokuma one bit."

"What reason do I have to lie? I want to make this trial fair for everyone! Or else there is just no reason to have this trial!" Monokuma said angrily.

"Alright, if we can trust Monokuma for this one thing, then we can agree that she must have been killed by a hard hit to the head."

David started to think "Although there was nothing that could have been used to hit her with besides the sound system. And it was covered in blood!"

"Yes" Gabriel started to say "It's very likely that was used.

 _Was it really? Could it possible be the weapon?_

"I don't think it was used to kill Catrina, it couldn't be" Terra said

"And why is that?" David asked angrily

"Isn't it obvious why it couldn't have been used? Think back to it." Terra said.

 _Arianna started to think "The file said blunt force to the head… But… there's nothing like that around here…" She eyed the sound system "Why not the sound system?" She pointed out "It has blood on it…"_

 _Nonam looked at the sound system and slowly nodded. The system had several lines of blood on it, but nothing concentrated "You might be right…"_

 _The reason it can't be the sound system is…_

"Because…" Nonam started "The blood never indicated that the person was hit against it. There were only streaks! If someone would have been bashed against it. There would have been a huge puddle there"

"So then what was the blood from" Christopher asked

"Probably from being cut up, she was bleeding a lot from there. So it's safe to assume that's where the blood came from" Nonam said

Terra rolled her eyes "Great, now that we are on the same page. We need to figure out why we we were all knocked out"

.

"Well clearly they must have done SOMETHING to keep us asleep!" David called out.

"No shit, it makes no sense that we all passed out at the same time…" Arianna sighed

"Maybe something was put in the food!" Chase called out.

"I think Chase is right…" Nonam said.

Chase turned to look at Nonam "I am? I mean of course I am!"

"We found an unknown vial inside the kitchen. Although it was completely empty, probably rinsed out. We can assume that was what knocked us out."

"It would also explain why we all passed out at different times…"

"Well, if what I'm thinking adds up…" Delilah started to think "Than the only person it can be is Eliza!" She said it so happily.

"W-w-what!" Eliza called out. "I would never do that!"

"You were the only one in the kitchen for those two days!" Jenna said.

.

"Look! We all ate her food and gotted knocked out!" David shouted

"She also would have had all the time in the world to do so…" Terra pointed out.

Xi started to think deeply "Especially if she made it look like some kind of ingredient"

"And why she didn't eat!" Chase crossed his arms.

"She was the only person not to eat!" Arti yelled

"That's actually wrong!" Nonam shouted out to Arti's statement.

"Oh yeah? What's your proof asshat!" He glared at him.

"Tristan is my proof…" Nonam said.

Tristan looked up, having not said anything in this trial "Huh?"

"What about Tristan?" Xi crossed his arms.

"Well he told me and Arianna that he didn't eat the food because there was meat in it…" Nonam said. "Because he's a vegetarian"

"Partially vegetarian" Tristan corrected.

"How the fuck can you be partially vegetarian?" Arti yelled at him.

"You wouldn't understand…" Tristan crossed his arms and looked the other way.

"I just won't believe it!" Xi called out.

"W-what?" Nonam said, not expecting it.

"Saying your a vegetarian could just be what he wants you to think! He could be working with Eliza! That way they both don't have the food and the culprit as the other as an accomplice. They were talking during the party!"

"Yeah, she was talking to him, but it was about the food he didn't want to eat" Nonam called out.

"Pitiful…" Xi smirked "Trying to defend a murderer!" His eyes were starting to look crazy "I might be a little crazy! But I CLEARLY SAW HIM EATING HER FOOD!"

"Tristan brought his own food!" Nonam yelled out. "He knew he wasn't going to be able to eat the food there so he brought his own food to eat"

"Yup! That's right!" Tristan said, taking out some food from his pockets.

Xi slowly calmed himself down "I see, I must have mistook that for her food. My apologizes"

"So what does that mean for this trial?" Terra started to think.

"What do you mean?" Larissa asked

"This just means it can't be the unknown vial!" Terra said.

"Wait what?" Chase said.

"If we can conclude that two people didn't eat the food, then that means it can't be the food!" Terra said.

"Yes, it would seem like it…"

"Then…" Christopher started to think "Why was the unknown vial there…?"

 _Why was the Unknown Vial there in the first place?_

"To frame someone…" Nonam said. "To frame Eliza…"

"W-w-why me?" She squeaked.

"Well, someone could have probably known you weren't going to eat…" Jenna said "Tristan?"

Tristan tilted his head "Am I still on your suspect list?"

"No… don't worry" Marisa said with a smile.

Jenna narrowed his eyes at Marisa "Of course he is still on our list. He was the one to get Eliza not to eat, and also he had his own food to make it look like he was eating her food!"

"That is, rather a lot of coincidences to be just coincidences…" Arianna sighed.

"But, I didn't do it!" Tristan said, a little worried.

"Well of course you wouldn't admit to it" Jenna smirked.

 _Did Tristan really do it…? I don't want to believe it! But the evidence is stacked against him. Maybe there is a defining clue to prove his innocence._

.

"It's definitely Tristan" Jenna smirked to herself.

"W-we don't know that for sure!" Marisa said worried. "It could still be anyone"

"Nope" Jenna said "All evidence points out to him. No one saw him collapse!"

"Wait!" Nonam called out. "I did see him collapse, right after Gabriel fell to the ground. And then I followed suit."

 _A weird noise resonated inside the gym, and slowly, one by one, people were starting to fall._

 _Gabriel started to franticly look around "What's happenin-" He never got to finish his sentence as he fell to the ground with everyone._

 _Nonam looked around, seeing other people collapse, including Tristan and David. Slowly, he followed suit. The last thing he remembers is an indistinguishable voice yelling "You fuck!"_

 _Suddenly…_

 _Lights out…_

"So you are saying that you saw Tristan pass out?" Marisa said, more happily then she should have.

"Yes, I'm sure of it…" Nonam nodded

"So then what knocked us out?" Larissa asked.

Terra looked over at Nonam. "You already know, don't you." She seemed firm but had a small smile.

"It must have been something from the lab…" He said "We found a missing poster and on it, were some instruction to some knockout gas. But the paper was burnt."

"Why was the paper burnt?" Christopher asked.

 _That has intrigued me for a while too… Why was it burnt?_

"To try and hide something important" Nonam came to the conclusion.

Chase shook his head "What could have possibly be hidden?"

"Probably some instructions to something…" Marisa said "But to what, wouldn't they have wanted to burn the knockout gas?"

Nonam started to think again "I think that was the intention…"

"Intention?" Tristan tilted his head. "You mean they wanted to but didn't do it…?

 _That's what I'm saying… but how did they mess up?_

"By burning up instructions to something else!" Nonam called out.

"What could have even been burnt up?" Xi called out.

"Well, isn't it strange that we can't find what was used to burn up the poster?" Nonam said.

"Well they could have used a lighter…" Jenna shrugged "You know, the easy solution"

"No, I agree with Nonam" Arianna said. She was about to speak when Terra cut her off.

"If they had used a lighter, there wouldn't be a poster anymore." She said.

Arianna huffed a little, looking annoyed.

"So that means that the substance used to burn the paper must have also burnt the instructions! So the culprit couldn't make it anymore!" Nonam called out.

"Is there any proof that a substance was even used?" Xi asked, tilting his head mockingly.

 _Was there proof?_

"The stains in the lab" Nonam said.

"The stains?" Xi questioned.

"There we stains on the counter of the lab, stains that looked pretty permanent…" He started to think again.

"The stains were indeed there" Terra said, which pissed off Arianna because she was going to say something like that.

"Alright, so I guess that's somewhat proof of it being there" Xi rolled his eyes. "But then who could have done i-"

"Terra" Jenna said coldly "Terra did it…"

"Wait what!" Terra yelled at her "Bitch! What did you just say?"

"I said you did it… are you deaf?" Jenna smirked mockingly

"How could I have done it!" Terra yelled out

"The poster was there when I was in the lab." Jenna said.

"Well it can't be her!" Nonam called out.

"Oh? You don't think so?" Jenna said. "Well here's where you are wrong! From the time I went in to the time the party happened! Terra spent the longest time there! It couldn't be anyone but her! And like I said, that poster was there when I was in the lab!"

Nonam started his rebuttal "But that doesn't prove anything. You could very well be lying about the poster being there. How can we trust your statement?"

Jenna smirked confidently "Because I showed you the poster! If I was the culprit there would be no poster left! And since Terra spent all day in the lab today. No one else could have gone between me and her!"

"That's where YOU are wrong!" Nonam called out "Someone could have gone in between you and Terra. The lab rules say so!"

Jenna seemed a little confused "Lab rules?"

"The rules state that the lab is always opened. Even at night!"

"So stuff isn't closed at night?" Jenna crossed her arms

"We were all under the assumption that it was" Nonam said.

"Although Monokuma never said it was closed." Arianna said, finally being able to speak. "He just said it wasn't recommended because then you could get murdered. But he never prohibited it"

"So yeah, I guess SOMEONE could have gone in after me and before Terra. Making both are statements true…" Jenna crossed her arms, defeated.

"So we know for sure that the knockout gas was made in the lab and used in the gym? But how did they use it without us seeing it?" Marisa asked.

 _There was a way they used is. I remember seeing it._

"The vents…" Nonam said.

"The vents?" Xi said in a mocking tone. How would the vents cause it to happen?"

"Well do you have any better ideas?" Arti crossed his arms.

"Yes, the vents were opened when I walked out of the gym. Although they weren't opened when we first got here." Gabriel said.

"Strange, the culprit removed the vents." Nonam said "But he didn't put it back in"

Arianna looked at Nonam "Why would that be…?"

 _Why indeed…_

"What if… they couldn't do it…" Nonam thought to himself. "Everyone knows how to do it and it couldn't have been a time restraint… Which means maybe they just couldn't do it!"

Gabriel nodded "This confirms what I had found." He pulled out a broken screw. "This means they didn't have the tools to do it, so they had to rip it out with something else. Meaning they couldn't have put it back to their original place!"

Christopher started to think hard "That makes a lot of sense, but how did they get the knockout gas to the gym from the vents?"

"They are probably connected, of course, but how would you time that they activated."

Terra sighed "You probably didn't know this, but the knockout gas is very sensitive to wind."

"So, you are saying that simply wind could activate it…?" Arianna asked

"So, the vents…" Marisa thought.

"Does that mean, the vent didn't have a broken time…?" Tristan realized.

 _That couldn't have been a broken time. It means something important_!

"It was to activate the vent" Nonam said. "Setting off the knockout gas. Which would explain the last time I saw, which was 8:59 Pm. And then the gas arrived shortly after."

"And then the culprit killed Catrina moments later…" Arianna sighed sadly.

"There wasn't much we could do…" Marisa also sighed.

"But there's still the matter of who the voice belonged to…" Jenna crossed her arms.

"That does seem to be a problem" Nonam said.

"What if it belonged to the killer" Xi said

"What?" Nonam asked in shock.

Xi smirked devilishly "I mean, what if the intended victim was not Catrina, but she was supposed to be the culprit!"

"That's a bold accusation to be causing on the dead" Terra glared at him.

"She's dead, so I don't really care that much about her anymore" Xi shrugged.

"You fucking animal…" Terra said.

David sighed "What did you expect from someone who takes enjoyment in others suffering"

"Enjoyment in others suffering?" Tristan tilted his head.

"David…" Xi said a little coldly.

"He's no longer the Ultimate Psychologist… He lost that logist part a long time ago…" David glared at Xi.

"The… Ultimate Psycho?!" Marisa shouted, realizing what David meant.

Xi stayed silent.

"Xi, is this true?" Gabriel looked slightly angry.

Soon, he started to laugh "It is! But I'm not the only one who's been hiding their Ultimate Talent!" He laughed even more. "Yeah, I'm the Ultimate Psycho! Got a problem with that?"

Marisa covered her mouth before becoming angry "Of course I have a problem with that! We are stuck in here with a psychopath!"

"Aww… don't be so mean… You'll hurt my feelings" Xi remained silent before laughing again "If i actually still had any feelings left"

"We are getting off track" Jenna said.

"You can't just brush that aside like that Jenna!" Marisa yelled at her.

"Well talking about Xi won't get us closer to the culprit. So let's just forget about it!" She said.

 _She has a point, Xi could just be trying to throw us off anyways_

"So what evidence do we have that could point to Catrina being the one who planned everything?" Nonam crossed his arms.

"Well we can all agree that Catrina yelled 'You fuck!'" Xi said.

"We don't know that for certain…" Nonam said

"Well, either way, this could prove that Catrina was trying to murder someone. How could she have been conscious in the first place to even yell that?" Xi pointed out.

 _A reason why she wasn't affected? There must be something that helped her avoid it. But I don't think it's for the reason Xi said._

"She was too far away. Remember, she was in the back of the stage!" Nonam said.

"And the gym is pretty huge" Arianna pointed out. "She could have easily have been avoided"

"But the question is… why?" Nonam thought to himself.

 _Why indeed…_

"I don't think it was planned. Maybe the culprit overestimated the gas…?" Nonam said.

"Or you know, Catrina knew it wasn't going to affect her that way. And when someone else didn't fall conscious, then she swore" Xi said. He was not going to let that theory go.

Nonam started to think. _Could Catrina really have done this…? No… it couldn't be possible… Or, could it?_

.

.

.

Intermission  
.

.

.

"So, what now? You can't repute it nor can you agree with it. Seems like you reached a stalemate…"

 _No… that's not it, there's always a way!_

.

"So it's pretty clear to me that you don't have any evidence that Catrina wasn't supposed to be the culprit. Such tragedy, to come this far only to be halted! The blow to the head must have killed her on impact! So maybe the only words she got to utter was 'You fuck' to whomever had seen through her plans! There wasn't even a sign of a struggle…

"That's wrong!" Nonam shouted "There was a struggle. Don't you remember seeing all those cuts on her body? Those couldn't have been an accident."

David thought for a moment "Not to mention the cuts themselves are questionable. Like the culprit didn't expect to have to do that… Not just that, but the records also weren't sharp at the tips. Meaning they probably got stuck inside her body"

"Kinky" Delilah giggled to herself. She didn't seem to fazed by murder at all.

Xi started to think "I suppose you are right…"

"Alright! Now that we got that cleared up" Terra said "Should we continue to discuss something more important?"

"Like how Xi is a Psychopath!" Marisa called out.

"Huh… no… I meant the murder weapon" Terra almost gave herself a facepalm.

"Oh! Right!" Marisa giggled a little.

.

"So it's been made pretty clear, we are running out of options!" Terra said.

"Well clearly we didn't use all of them." Jenna said.

"Yes, there is one last piece of evidence for what could be the murder weapon... That unknown material we came acr-"

"You mean the shattered disco ball?" Delilah said.

"The what?" Nonam asked confused.

"You knoooow! The disco ball from the party, I was wondering where it had went…" She goes into deep thought.

"Wait? It wasn't at the…" Gabriel was now in deep thought. "WAIT! I don't remember seeing it too! But I installed it this morning!" He seemed to getting freaked out. "How did someone even get to it…?

"There were… two disco balls" Arti said "I checked the storage room and found the one that you had placed. Which means the second one was used. Meaning it could have been set up at any time!"

"Dammit! That just makes this case harder! Eh, harder!" Chase snickered

"Mind out of the gutter!" Terra yelled

"You can put your mind in my gutter" Delilah gigled.

The entire room fell silent.

"What, fuck you all! I'm allowed to make a joke" Delilah crossed her arms, pouting angrily.

"Ship" Larissa giggled.

"Oh, look who finally decided to talk" Xi said to her.

"Well I've been quiet because there's not much I can add to the conversation" She shrugged "I didn't exactly do much investigation"

"That is true, she was in Classroom 1A, writing in her notebook…"

She took it out and flashed it "See?" She giggled a little. "It's kinda what my talent entails. So there's no changing that!"

"We are getting sidetracked again" Jenna narrowed her eyes. "Let's go back to talking about the disco ball… How would one even kill someone.

 _Well yeah, a sheer way to have killed someone would have been,_

"It was swung, like a pendulum…" Nonam said, "It would have picked up, not only the push from gravity, but it also could have propelled, giving it extra force. Which further proves Catrina wasn't going to murder!"

"I get it…" Xi rolled his eyes.

"I find that bullshit!" Jenna called out

"What?" Nonam asked confused.

"How could someone have even put the disco ball high up? And how would they have created the pendulum effect?" Jenna yelled

"Well a ladder could have been used to get ot it!" Nonam said.

"Oh? A ladder, last I checked, the storage room didn't have one!" She said.

"Actually, it did. It's just no longer there anymore… Right Arti?"

Arti was thinking when it got interrupted "Oh? Right… I went to check to see if anything was-"

"How the hell do you lose a ladder?" Jenna was starting to get mad "A ladder is kinda too big since it was to be used to to reach the ceiling. There's no way it could be hidden somewhere!"

"It was hidden under the table, the broken table, to be precise" Nonam started to say.

"And how does a table just break like that? Are you people also blind? I'm pretty sure you would have noticed it breaking, there's nothing that could have caused it to break!"

"The ladder itself could have done it. The reason we didn't notice it was because the ladder was attached to the table, directly from underneath. Eventually the strains of the ladder became too much and it snapped. Which was not part of the plan"

Jenna smiled, _what was she thinking_ "Makes sense, what about the disco ball? What kept it in place?"

"The Broken String we found, of course, it would make sense, all the person needed to do was somehow snap it…"

Jenna smiled even more. "And what was used to break the string?"

 _Well, of course the thing used to break the string, was..._

"Arti's Katana, it's somehow sharp enough to be thrown and cut the string, although it might take several tries."

Jenna sighed happily "Now that you are all finally on the same page as me"

"What do you mean?" Nonam asked, a little angrily. "You were the one who didn't understand!"

"Actually" Xi snickered "She already knew, she was trying to get you all to figure it out"

"Get out of my head" She glared "But yes, I did know, I also came to the conclusion that Catrina fell unconscious from the multiple cuts. As well as the fact that the gas would eventually reach her" She smiled at everyone "I just had to make sure you all slowly understood or else you would ignore what I thought" She shrugged, seemingly annoyed. "Also, with Catrina eventually falling unconscious, that gave culprit enough time to attempt the pendulum trick. Which is why it took 5 minutes, according to the Monokuma files"

"So where do we go from now?" Arianna asked "It would be easy if stuff was closed at night… but it can be anyo-"

"Ooooh Monokuuuuma" Delilah asked.

He seemed kinda annoyed "What!?"

"I have one itsy bitsy question to ask you…" She said in an adorable voice.

He sighed loudly "What is it…?"

"Did anyone go out at night in these past two da-"

"NO! NO ONE WENT OUT AT NIGHT! STOP WOR-" Monokuma went silent. "Woops"

Delilah giggled "Thaaaank you!" She winked before turning towards everyone, with a more serious face "That means that this does limit the amount of suspects… Leaving it once again up to Jenna and Terra…"

"Wait…" Gabriel said. "I was at the gym a lot of the time, maybe I we can narrow it down to who has been to all three locations…"

"Don't you mean two?" Christopher asked.

"We also have to include the kitchen, that way we can catch who framed Eliza…"

Eliza started to think "Well in total, I had, Arianna, Chase, Christopher, Delilah, Marisa, and Nonam stop by the kitchen.

"As for me… the people who were at the gym the two times I was there was… Arianna, Arti, Catrina, Christopher, Delilah, and Nonam." Gabriel said. "Hmmm…"

"Are you saying it's me?" Arianna said bluntly.

"What? Well, not really, but you are at two locations of the three, and no one else mentioned going to the lab…" Gabriel said… "But we can mark Arianna as not the culprit" Gabriel said.

"And why's that?" Arti crossed his arms.

"We didn't start moving stuff in the gym till today, and the ladder was still there this morning. Arianna only stopped by yesterday morning to help plan some stuff out" Gabriel said.

"That makes sense" Jenna said.

"And me and her both have an alibi for when the culprit would have went to the lab!" Delilah said. "We were in the kitchen with Eliza" She winked "It couldn't have been us!"

"And I was talking with David at the time someone would have went to the lab" Nonam said.

David slowly nodded "Yeah, we did meet up…"

"Which means…" Gabriel hummed to himself.

 _Which means… it can only be one person…_

"Christopher…" Nonam said.

Christopher looked over at Nonam "Huh?"

"It could only be you…" He said.

"Wait what!" He shouted out "I-I would never do something like that!"

"Well it can't be anyone else" Nonam said, pain in his voice. He didn't want to do this. "Christopher just come forth with it"

"I didn't do it!" He yelled out

.

"I would have had to have taken a gas mask to do this, but obviously I couldn't! Because after I woke up, I made it straight to body that everyone was talking about! Then I went to the kitchen with Delilah!" He called out. "I couldn't have replaced the gas mask!"

"You could have…" Nonam said.

"What?" Christopher asked.

"The Lab rules state that all equipment will be replaced each hour. However, if you read even closer, it states that damaged material will disappear in 10 minutes." Nonam said "I didn't read much into it at the time, but I still wrote it down somewhere. So, I'm sorry Christopher… it has to be you…"

"..." Christopher looked down at his podium, staying silent.

Nonam looked at him and shrugged "I think it's time for the v-"

"The blood" Christopher said "If I did kill her, then I would be covered in blood!" He pointed to his shirt "But I'm not!"

"That doesn't really prove anything… None of us have blood…" Nonam said

"Then it's none of us and Monokuma is just toying with us!" Christopher yelled.

Nonam ignored that last part "I know where you hid the blood…"

"W-what…?" Christopher asked.

 _Yeah, I know where he hid the blood…_

"On the inside of your shirt…" Nonam said. "If recall, you had arrived to the party with your shirt, inside out"

 _Christopher was off in his own little corner. He was hilariously wearing his shirt inside out._

"At the time" Nonam started "I thought it was just an honest mistake, but now I've noticed your shirt it the right way! Not only that, but around the time it happened, you were purposely away from everyone, facing away. Allowing you to put on the gas mask…"

"What about me being pass-" Christopher started to say.

"You simply underestimated how long the gas would last and passed out to. Which would go very well with another point…" Jenna grinned.

 _I know what she is talking about…_

"Your own words…" Nonam said.

"My own… words…?" He froze

"You said you were the last one awake AND that you were off on your own. Now… to fully explain this murder…

.

Act 1: Upon hearing that there was going to be a party tonight, the culprit started their plan right away. They decided to pose as a helper for Gabriel, inspecting the area, and trying to find an idea on how the murder could unfold. Upon looking around to what there was, they started hatching their own little plan. The culprit made sure what they needed was in inventory, and then left to go do their next step.

.

Act 2: It was a matter of setting up a disco ball, when everyone broke for lunch. They must have acted like they joined them, and then disappeared to head to the gym. The culprit thought up of a perfect way to make a murder happen. They took the ladder and climbed up it, with a large disco ball, and some string. They attached it to the center of the room, and then the edge of the room, so when the string on the edge was cut, it would create a pendulum effect, and kill the victim.

.

Act 3:They went to the laboratory to see what they would need to make a certain knockout gas. Then, to get rid of the evidence, they tried to burn it up with some acid. Sadly their handy work was poor and they spilt it, resulting in the instructions for the acid being burnt. The Culprit started to freak out. This caused the stains on the counter. The culprit, hide the burnt poster in Classroom 2A, since they couldn't dispose of it, and it was too tough to shred it. This later was found by Jenna, who had been investigating that class.

.

Act 4: The culprit waited for the perfect opportunity to implement the knockout gas. The perfect opportunity, was when they could move the ladder. Which was this morning. No one would suspect them, especially if they are helping stuff out of the gym. Once they slipped unnoticed, they made their way to the nearby vents. They set up the ladder and climbed up the vents. There was only one problem, the vent was screwed tight and they didn't have something to unscrew it. So they settled for breaking it open.

.

Act 5: Once the bombs were placed in the vents, they started to head back to the gym, however, they couldn't just return to the gym, since they got LUCKY with nobody noticing them in the first place. So instead of returning the ladder, they checked out the cafeteria and noticed no one was there. They used some very thin rope to keep it against the table, but under it. The table, eventually breaking during the party, as the ladder weight it down to much.

.

Act 6: The culprit returned to the bathroom with a makeshift excuse of why they left so suddenly. Once back in again, they continued helping, when they were almost finished. They slip away and started messing around with the vents. They had set the timer to turn on the vents at 9pm, 5 minutes before the murder occured. Once the culprit was done setting that up, they had one more step to do.

.

Act 7: The culprit made their way over to the kitchen, with the excuse of seeing how Eliza was doing on the food. She must have thought nothing of it at the time, since she was alone and was glad to have someone to talk to. The culprit had smuggled an empty vial of something. The intention was to make it look like Eliza had added into the food to knock us out. Especially since they were planning on making sure Eliza didn't eat. Although they didn't plan a lot of the sequence of events that happened, to happen next. So much for luck, huh?

.

Act 8: The party started off with everyone showing up. Including Terra, which surprised some people. Everyone was eating the food, except for two people, one of them being the person the culprit wanted to frame, although they didn't plan on another person not eating. Tristan refused to eat because of being partially vegetarian, whatever that means. This put the culprits plans at risk, but they tried to press forward.

.

Act 9: Catrina, the victim, started playing the music. Little did she know, that it would be her last gig of her life… As the time approached 9 pm, the culprit kept trying to go off on their own. Probably to put the gas mask on where no one could see them. Not to mention that they were wearing their shirts inside out. But that was intentional, in case they got some blood spilt on them.

.

Act 10: 9 pm finally hit, and so did all of our bodies to the floor. The culprit, and the victim, were not affected by it immediately. Catrina was too far away from where the gas was unleashed, so she hadn't been affected by it right away. Seeing that someone put on the gas mask, she freaked out and realized that they were behind this all. She yelled out 'YOU FUCK' which most of us heard. This caught the culprit off guard, and they had to go fight her head on, or their plan would fail.

.

Act 11: What should have been an easy murder soon got complicated. The culprit sprinted full force towards Catrina to try and knock her out. The fight happened there, but Catrina couldn't deal a hit. The records were used to cut her several times, and even scratch her. Soon, the gas finally reached her and she was knocked out. The culprit didn't want their original plan to go to waste, so they placed her in a position to be hit.

.

Act 12: The culprit felt pretty confident. They made their way to Arti and stole his katana. Before using it to cut the string, they probably used it to damage the gas mask, so it would disappear in ten minutes. After that, they spent a good 2-3 minutes trying to cut the string. Once it was cut, the disco ball swung like a pendulum and hit Catrina right in the face, killing her instantly. The impact actually shattered the disco ball, which became the unknown material.

.

Act 13: The culprit had went through with the murder. Now, to get rid of evidence. They threw Arti's Katana out, which probably wasn't the best idea because we knew it was used for something. But they also didn't know when the gas would run out. They inverted their shirt to hide the blood. Then, they waited for them to be able to breath in again. Although, this was another error on their part. The gas mask disappeared before the gas cleared out, causing them to fall unconscious. And being the last one up.

.

Act 14: After they eventually woke up, the culprit joined up with everyone and acted in shock as everyone looked at the body. Once the investigation started, they made a beeline straight for the kitchen, with Delilah at their sides. Once someone came around to investigate, they would direct their attention to the unknown vial. They seemed pretty helpful, so it was hard to see what their intentions were.

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And that person, can only be you! Christopher Hide!"

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"Well...what do you say Christopher…" Nonam said.

"OOOO! Take off your shirt! I want to see if you have blooood" Delilah giggled.

Christopher remained silent, looking at everyone. He slowly obliged, turning his shirt inside out, and yes, it was covered in blood. Some even went on his torso because of wearing the shirt like he was.

"So it is you…" Arianna mumbled.

"To think Nonam was right" Xi shrugged "Shall we start the vote?"

Monokuma perked up at the sound of someone saying that "It's voooting time!"

Everyone silently voted, except Christopher, who didn't do anything.

"And the vooootes are in! Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice? Or the dreadfully wrong one!"

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A roulette thing appeared out of nowhere and started to do it's thing. Soon, three heads appeared, all belonging to Christopher, with the words "Guilty" Over them.

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"Christopher is indeed the blackened!" Monokuma laughed.

"Christopher…" Nonam started to say.

He looked up at him but didn't say a word.

"Why…?"

"I… I found a timer in the school… that was counting down…" He said. "I found it yesterday morning on my way to the gym. It was ticking down, and it wouldn't stop. On it, it had less than two days left. The timer would reach zero sometime during the party. And knowing Monokuma, that wasn't there just for the fun of it…"

"And what if it was?" Monokuma tilted his head.

Christopher looked a little angry at Monokuma "I think it was a time limit!"

"Time limit? For what?" Monokuma asked with a small laugh

"Well I assumed it was for when you were going to kill one of u-" Christopher started to say.

"Wrooooooooooong!" Monokuma laughed "That was just to remind me when I should step in to stop the party! Or at least join in myself! I love parties! Especially if it's about the killing game!"

"It wasn't about the ki-" Gabriel started to say.

"Shut up you rotten politician!" Monokuma glared at Gabriel "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S PUNISHEMENT TIME!"

.

Monokuma took out a little hammer and hit the red button, a panel under Christopher was opened, and he fell. He fell for quite a while actually. Soon, he landed on a slide and started sliding down it. Nothing surrounding him but complete darkness. Soon, a bright light was seen. And then everything came to life, machines were everywhere. Luck based machines that is, he is the Ultimate Lucky Student, after all. Soon, the slide merged with another slide, and now he was sliding down it with some casino balls. He got hit in the back multiple times, and soon came to a sudden drop. He started spinning around a roulette with multiple balls also doing the same thing. All the numbers were gone besides seven and thirteen. Would he get lucky or not? Would he fall down the hole or stay on one of the two remaining panels. Soon, after a while of spinning, he slowly landed on the ther panel marked thirteen. He slowly got up, thinking that he survived. But slowly, one by one, the balls started to land on that panel. They weight more than they should, too. Christopher tried to break out of the ball fortress that had formed on top of him, but soon, one last ball landed on the pile and his arm, reaching out, went limb.

.

Xi looked off into the distance "That was kinda boring actually…"

Arianna turned to him angrily "How can you say that when one of us just died!"

"He commited murder. He deserves as much" Xi shrugged, walking away.

"Hey! You come back here!" Marisa yelled at him, which at least got his attention. "You claim to be the Ultimate Psycho!"

"That I am, miss." Xi grinned "After years of finally being a psychologist, I finally snapped. It makes sense, in a way." He started to walk away again, getting onto the elevator, and leaving without everyone else.

"What the hell is his problem?" Arti crossed his arms, a little angry.

"You know what, forget about him, we don't need him!" Marisa said angrily.

"Guys, I know we lost two friends…" Delilah said sadly "But… we can't give up…" She smiled at everyone.

"Delilah is right…" Gabriel smiled. The elevator returned and they all got in "The next person to try and kill someone would be stupid… they saw what happened and how much it's hurt everyone… and then how we solved it" The elevator started going up "I know this is partially because of the party, but we shouldn't just ignore why the party happened in the first place."

 _Soon, the elevator stopped. When we first went down it took forever, but since Gabriel is talking, time seemed to move quicker._

When the door opened, Delilah quickly ran out, winking with her right eye "Well! Today's been a long day! I should head to bed!" She ran off leaving everyone behind. When she unlocked her door and walked in. She closed it and locked it up again. She still had the adorable smile on her face. But it soon faded as she now winked with her left eye. Something was bothering her…

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"-na-" A voice called out. There was no response. "-na-!" The voice called out again. Still, no response. -NA-!" The voice shouted. There was a response. "Oh! Thank god, I thought they had wiped your memory already…" The voice said, the vision was blurry so they couldn't see who it was. "Look, we don't have much time. We caused all of this to happen! We deserve it, I know! But that doesn't mean we can't stop it! There's a way! There's a mastermind! I need you to find the mastermind and expose them! I know, it might be difficult, but you have something special that will allow you to remember this! Hopefully… just… if you do remember… remind me how good of friends we were…"

And then it went dark.


	4. Chapter 2: Dangers of Envy - Daily Life

"Run!" A voice called out. "They are coming, if they catch us! It's over!"

 _I ran as fast as I could_

"I already told you I don't know why… I don't know why they are after us! It as to do with our ultimate talents I assume!"

 _Our… ultimate talents? That could be it… but why… why were they after people like us. None of it made much sense. But then again, nothing seemed to make sense anymore._

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Larissa was walking around the school, a little bored "I should go have breakfast soon" She sighed "But I'm not really hungry" She frowned. She passed by a door and stopped. "Wait a second…" She took a few steps back and looked at the door "This… wasn't here before!" She slowly opened the door and walked in "Wait… no way!"

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.

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Nonam was sitting at the table, slowly eating some food. The events that occured yesterday, still shaking him up. A lot of people who were eating were silent. Everyone was pretty much there besides Xi and Larissa.

"Let's make sure… that that never happens again…" Arianna said, sadly.

"Yeah… we have to make sure…" Nonam replied.

"Why is everyone so gloomy?" Xi asked as he walked in.

He received several glares from people.

"The silent treatment? Huh? Oh well!" He smirked devilishly. "You people need to lighten up"

"And you need to shut the hell up" Arti yelled out.

Suddenly. Larissa barged into the cafeteria "Guys! I found something!"

Gabriel quickly got up, ready to take action "What did you find?"

"Well…" She started to twirl her fingers "It's a door that wasn't there yesterday"

"Where does it lead?" Gabriel asked.

"Well, I didn't go far into the room…" Larissa admitted.

"Wouldn't you have still been able to see what it was…" David crossed his arms.

She kept twirling her fingers together in a shy manner "It's better if you see it for yourself…" She headed out of the cafeteria room.

Everyone got up and followed her.

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When Nonam got there, Larissa was waiting in front of a door, that didn't have a window like all the other doors. So you couldn't actually see what was inside. "Is everyone here?" She asked.

"Everyone but Xi" Terra said, "But who needs him?"

"W-what's in the door…?" Eliza asked.

Larissa opened the door to reveal… a Staircase?

"Stairs?" David crossed his arms.

"Oh!" Gabriel exclaimed "That's right! Hope Peak's Academy has several floors! I think like five floors…?"

"Actually there's more but we'll only be able to explore five…" Larissa said.

Gabriel looked confused "You went to check already?"

"What? No? Just a hunch!" She smiled

"Shall we go explo-" Arti started to say before a voice ran from up top.

"SLOW POKES!" Delilah giggled, already at the top of the staircase.

"She's a lively one…" Chase sighed "Not my taste now that I think about it. But then again, I'll probably date anything"

Terra sighed "You'd fuck anything that moves"

"I mean… probably" He shrugged.

Everyone left the place, leaving Nonam and Arianna behind.

"Shall we go?" She smiled.

He slowly nodded and headed up the stairs. Once at the top, the first thing that was apparent was somehow the entire hallway looked similar to the other one.

"Hmmm, a disappointment, don't you think?" Arianna mumbled.

Nonam shook his head "There's probably a bunch of different rooms here…" He walked for a bit before stopping in front of two doors. One for boys and the other for girls. "This doesn't look like the washrooms…"

Arianna seemed doubtful "What makes you so sure?"

"It has the words changing room over it" Nonam pointed out.

Arianna stayed silent for a bit "You win this time… So this means there must be a pool on the other side…"

Nonam pointed to the entrance of the pool

Arianna remained silent before simply entering the girls changing room.

Nonam shook his head and entered his respective changing room.

Wishy wooshy, you are now Arianna

She closed the door and looked around.

 _Hmm… this is actually pretty clean_

"HIIIIIIIIII!" A voice said from beside her.

Arianna jumped a little bit and went to smack who said that.

Delilah managed to avoid it rather well, pouting "I didn't think you hated me…" She frowned.

Arianna looked pretty mad "Don't sneak up on me!"

"I'm sorry!" She giggled "It was just so fuuun! Anyways! Quick! Get changed!"

"W-what?" Arianna crossed her arms.

Delilah quickly started getting undressed but because I'm lazy, screw details. "Come ooon! There's a pool!" She ran over to a locker and pulled out a nice looking two piece swimsuit "The school is so nice!"

Arianna blushed faintly "I'm not getting changed!"

Delilah put on the swimsuit and looked at herself in the mirror "But it's soooo cute!" She pouted. "I know!" She ran over to Arianna and grabbed her clothes.

"Hey! What are you doing?" She yelled out.

A few moments later, Arianna was now wearing a swimsuit. And yes, Delilah DID change her. Fan service.

She was blushing more "These aren't exactly modest!"

"Well they are in a school, silly! So they have to be acceptable" Delilah started to push her towards the door.

"Wait! No!"

And with one push, she fell outside the door.

"Huh… I thought we were just investigating…" Nonam sighed, looking down at Arianna in a swimsuit. It also seemed something else was on his mind.

She quickly got up and turned towards Delilah "Blame her!"

Speaking of Delilah, she started to run and jumped in the water. Splashing anyone nearby, which was Terra. She was sitting on a beach chair and got splashed. "Hey!" She shouted. She turned and looked at everyone angrily. She preferred when she was the only one at the pool "Why is everyone here anyways?"

Chase, who was standing beside Nonam, who he presumingly saw in the changing room, spoke up "Well, I mean, it's a pool."

Terra made sure Chase couldn't get a good look at her in her swimsuit "You are only here so you can look at girls!"

Chase shrugged "I mean, of course. But it's not my fault you all look beautiful"

Terra slowly sank back into her chair.

Nonam shook his head "Arianna, you should probably change back so we can keep explorin-" He looked at her, and she was being dragged into the water by Delilah, who had somehow gotten out of the water without anyone noticing.

Arianna, herself, just gave up on trying to fight back and fell into the water.

Nonam shook his head with a faint blush. "Alright… Maybe I will join…" He smiled softly. He left to head to the changing room.

Arianna slowly sank into the water, blushing.

 _Goddammit, that's exactly what I DIDN'T want…_

After a few minutes, Nonam walked out with a swimming suit that seemed smaller than it should be, but oh well. He jumped into the water and started swimming, actually pretty well. "I didn't know you were such a good swimmer!" She smiled at him.

"Oh?" He stopped swimming "I haven't swam in ages… I guess I'm just, naturally good?" He said.

 _That… sounds like a lie, but I can't tell._

They swam around in the pool for a bit, Delilah and Chase also in the pool.

Terra, despite not liking being around people, watched them swim. She soon joined in with them.

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.

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After a good hour Nonam finally got out of the water. Arianna got out right behind him.

"Should we go now?" She asked him.

"Yeah… we should…" He said.

She tried adjusting her swimsuit "Well I might go take a shower first." She said

Nonam nodded and probably had a sudden image in his head. Probably. "Yeah, I might as well too."

Delilah grinned and shouted something "If Larissa was here, she would suggest you two take one together!"

Arianna didn't say anything and walked away.

Nonam looked at Delilah and glared a little.

When they both left, Delilah pouted. "I swear, they look like they were together before this whole ordeal!"

.

Soon they both met up outside the room. "Well, that was a waste…" Arianna frowned.

"Well you seemed to have enjoyed swimming" Nonam said.

Arianna seemed even more angry "I didn't want to swim in the first place!" She took a deep breath and looked at the hallway "Let's just find some other room to go to…" She looked back at Nonam, who, wasn't there anymore. "Huh…" She frantically looked around.

Nonam was standing in front of a door, looking at the label "It's a library" He smiled. He opened the door and saw someone he didn't expect to see here.

Or even on this floor for that matter, as said person wasn't with them.

"Oh great, more people?" Xi shook his head. "And to think I was the only person who knew about this second floor…" He sighed.

"Wait. You knew about this place?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"Of course I did, darling. I discovered it yesterday after the trial ended. It seems like that is our reward for completing the trial…" He smirked.

"Like hell we need a reward!" Arianna shouted "We just had two people die yesterday! This isn't some kind of ga-"

"Aren't you forgetting… It's the KILLING GAME!" Xi started to laugh "Of course there are going to be rewards. The survivors must have to look forward to soooomething. Or else, besides trying to live, what's the point. Now we can have more fun! Without, our fallen comrades, that is. But who needs them anyways? One was an idiot while the other was really loud. And her music sucked!"

Arianna was getting angry and actually lunged at him.

Only

To be stopped by someone.

"What's the big deal!" She yelled.

Gabriel, who had stopped her, looked her in the eyes "We already lost two people, we don't need to lose more!"

"Although, losing more would make the trials easier…" Xi said.

Nonam was glaring at Xi.

"What? It is true" A voice said, near a bookshelf. It was Jenna, looking through some books. "The less people there are, the less people there are to accuse. Which is why if I ever wanted to murder someone, I would have done it before Catrina died. Not like I wasn't trying. But there's no point now" She sighed.

"You guys, except Gabriel, are assholes!" Arianna yelled. She grabbed Nonam's hands and left the room.

 _Why am I stuck in this school with these fucking LUNATICS!?_

They had both exited the room, Arianna, obviously pretty furious.

"Let's just… go to another room and explore…" Nonam suggested, opening the next door.

It was a computer lab, and four people were in the room. David, Eliza, Marisa, and Tristan.

"How can you not know how to use a computer?" Marisa sighed as she typed on the computer.

"Well, I've never used one. I also don't know how to use my monopad" Tristan said, taking it out.

She sighed "Sometimes, you are hopeless…" Although a small smile crossed her face.

David was also on the computer "Yeah… we can't access the internet. That's about as much as I expected. But hey" He turned the lab screen towards them "We can play some fucking minesweeper!"

Tristan tilted his head "How do you play?"

Nonam rolled his eyes, walked over to the computer. He grabbed the mouse and finished the board in a few seconds.

David blinked, not realizing what happened.

"W-wow…" Eliza said "H-how did you do that?"

Nonam realized that he had just walked over there to do that shook his head "Huh? Oh! Hey, I was just randomly clicking. I must have gotten lucky !"

"No one gets lucky like that" David crossed your arms. "And you aren't the Ultimate Lucky Student. That title belongs to someone who is dead."

Eliza frowned, with a single tear falling down "Don't treat him like he was nothing…"

David closed his eyes, in anger "He was a murderer! Someone who kills can't be trusted, ever!" He got up and walked out of the room.

Eliza sat down where he was and loaded up a new game of minesweeper. Although she wasn't very good.

Nonam looked over at Marisa "What are you doing?"

She giggled a little "Just trying to get the pictures on computer. They'll be a better quality!"

Nonam shook his head "When did you have time to take photos?"

"At the party!" She said happily, before frowning sadly. No one wanted to talk about the party at all. Any mention was just, met with sadness.

"The party wasn't too bad…" Tristan said trying to reassure Marisa "At least… the starting was pretty good."

She looked like she was about to cry but kept her cool "Y-yeah!" She smiled.

Arianna, not finding this the best place, grabbed Nonam's arms. "Let's go…" She sighed.

Once out of the room, they had three rooms they had not visited yet. All three of them looked like Classrooms.

"Well, some instincts are telling me to go to the second classroom" Arianna said, opening the door. And indeed, some people were in it.

"Hey, Larissa, I know you are the Ultimate Matchmaker, but why do you always do this?" Arti sighed

"Well, everyone deserves love!" She pouted "And maybe if I ship it enough, they two people will fall for each other!"

"And what about you…?" Arti asked.

"What do you mean?" Larissa asked innocently, although she knew what she was doing.

Arti sighed, trying to think how to put this into words "You always ship others with others but I never heard you say a peep about yourself"

She started to giggle "Silly! I can't ship myself with someone! It would look weird! Although if I could, I know who it would be!" She turned towards Arianna and Nonam and smiled brighter "Shi-"

"No" Arianna crossed her arms.

"Meanie" Larissa frowned.

Suddenly, the screen lit up, revealing Monokuma "May I have everyone's attention? This is about two things actually. The pool rules are these: The doors only open with your monopad and if you try to enter the opposite changing room, you will be punished on the spot. And by punished, I mean KILLED! The other thing! You know how I said something about motives? WELL! Time for this motive! Inside your room, you will find a special monopad! So get to your room and see what you haaaave!" With that, the screen turned off.

Arti quickly got up "I got to go…!" He said before leaving.

"Wait up!" Larissa yelled out, running after him.

 _Our… motive…?_

Arianna thought for a moment.

Nonam shook his head "We shouldn't watch the-" But when he went to look at Arianna, she was gone. "... Shit…."

.

Arianna opened the door to her room and went inside.

As Monokuma had said, they had received a new monopad. She took it, taking a deep breath, and pressed play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to Arianna Rodriguez. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Delilah Lyi! What is with her? How can someone be so happy about the way things are going?" Monokuma picked up glass of wine to start swirling it around. "If anything, I would think she's a liar! But what do I know! I'm only here to confuse you!" And with that, the video ended.

.

Arianna shook her head and placed the monopad on the table. She let a silent sigh pass "Who would kill because of something Monokuma said…" She tossed hers in the trash after that comment and sat on her bed "Seriously, so what if she is a liar anyways? Aren't… Aren't we all…?" She sighed. Feeling tired… she slowly drifted away into sleep.

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She woke up some time later and looked at the time. It was about 11 in the morning. She should probably go do something now. She slowly got up looked at her table. The monopad was back there "What the?"

 _I was sure I threw it out…_

She walked over to it and tossed it out again. She needed to talk to Nonam about these things. Where would he even b- Oh! The library opened up. She made her way to the library but when she opened the doors, she found two people fighting.

"Who are you really!" Chase yelled at David.

"I'm me!" He yelled back.

"Are you truly the Ultimate Blacksmith!" Chase yelled.  
"Of course I am!" David yelled back.

Someone handed Arianna some ear muffs and a book. It was Terra. "They won't shut up and seem to forget that this is a library…" She walked over to the back, before turning back towards Arianna "There's some comfy seats in the back!"

Arianna nodded and passed by David and Chase, who had resorted to throwing books at each other.

 _Pfft… boys!_

She rolled her eyes. She finally saw what Terra meant and saw some beanie bag chairs. She sat down on one and almost sank into it.

"I was so happy to find a library" Terra said. "You know, since people tend to only come here to be quiet" She looked up at Chase and David "But SOOOOME people seem to have other plans!"

Both boys stopped and looked at Terra.

She took a deep breath "Great, now that I have your attention-" And they went right back to fighting "I fucking hate everyone…"

Arianna was looking at the large book Terra had "Not to judge or anything, but you didn't seem like the reading type…"

"What? Of course I love reading. Well, I mean. It's one of the rare things I like…" She mumbled

Arianna started to think "Do you like science and literature?"

"What? No!" She yelled out "Well, maybe literature! But not the other one!"

"Then what were you doing in the lab? I don't know because I wasn't there myself. But I heard you were trying to make something"

She crossed her arms angrily with a faint blush "So what if I enjoy doing stuff like that?"

"There's nothing wrong with that" Arianna smiled. "I didn't like acting that much, bu-"

"Yeah, I know. Your tendencies to lying allowed you to mask to hide your true self. Great for putting on a character." Terra said without skipping a heart beat.

"W-wha?" She seemed confused and then angry. "Who told you that?"

Terra narrowed her eyes "Don't worry, it was just the monokpad!" She tried to defend herself "I wanted to see if it was real, and turns out it is"

Arianna went into deep thought, trying to think of something. "Does that mean the one I got might be true too…?"

Terra seemed a little angry "Well spill who you got!"

"Oh? Yeah! I got one about Delilah…" She frowned "Something about her being a liar… But I think we are all liars here. At least a few of us are…"

"Sometimes, you have to lie to surv-" Terra started to say before she got hit in the face by a book. She quickly got up, glaring at Chase and David "I will fucking destroy you!" She ran after them, both of them, sprinting away.

Arianna just sat down, watching the whole scene. She slowly sank back down into her chair, going back to reading. After a few hours. She went back to her room to relax.

.

A couple hours had passed and when she got up. She checked the time and it was about four in the afternoon. She went to leave her room but then noticed her monopad was still where it was.

 _What the fuck…_

She shook her head and walked out of her room. She walked by a classroom and heard some noise from inside.

Someone was sighing "Please. Stop" Arti said.

"But I'm bored!" Larissa said.

"Doesn't give you the reason to do this" Arti said "Hey! Watch where you put your hand!" Arti said.

"I couldn't resist!" She giggled.

 _What the fuck are they doing? Should I peek in? No! I can't!_

"Wow Arti…" Larissa sighed dreamingly "Your skin is soft!"

"Don't say that" He sighed.

Arianna just didn't even walk over there and left. Fuck that shit.

Inside the classroom, turns out Larissa was just using Arti's arms to draw on.

It all makes sense now! Except for Arianna, who was now scarred for life.

.

Arianna sat on her bed, it was now pretty late. Around 8 pm. She was going to head to bed early when there was a knocking at her door. She sat up and walked over to the door. When she opened, she greeted the person with a bright smile "Oh hey Nonam! I needed to talk to you about so-"

"Gabriel wants to see everyone" He said somewhat coldly.

"Oh!" She frowned "Alright, I'll be there in a short bit…"

Nonam nodded and walked away.

 _Something is up with him…_

She made her way to where she suspected the meeting was going to take place. The cafeteria, and she was right. Gabriel and everyone else was there.

Gabriel had noticed that Arianna had arrived and counted everyone, including himself, coming up with the number 14. It seemed that he was going to wait for two others to show up, but a frown came across his face when he remembered they were no longer a part of this world. "Alright! That should be everyone!" Gabriel said.

"What is this about?" Jenna crossed her arms.

"The motive videos" Gabriel said "I think we should destroy them"

Jenna sneered "You don't think we've already tried that?"

"Wait… what?" Gabriel turned to her.

Arti scratched the back of his head "Yeah, I only went to my room to destroy it and left. When I came back, it was there again, like nothing had happened…"

Gabriel started to think "Monokuma must have an endless supply… Well just throw them out!"

"That won't work either…" Arianna sighed "Everytime I threw mine out, it reappeared next time I checked…"

"Dammit…" Gabriel mumbled "I guess Monokuma really wants us to see those videos…"

"Well, may I add that I'm pretty sure we all saw the videos…?" Xi smirked.

"There's no wa-" Gabriel started to say. He turned towards everyone. "Who watched their videos…?" He sighed.

Literally everyone, even Nonam, lifted their hands.

"Great" He said lowly. "I guess that just leaves me who hasn't seen his"

Xi smirked evilly and walked over to the center of the cafeteria "Well now would be a good time for any." He was holding the Monopad meant for Gabriel.

"Wait! How did you get that!" He shouted.

Xi ignored his warnings and pressed play.

.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to Gabriel Peterson. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Eliza Dalton! What is with her? She seems so small and shy! What could she possibly due? Well, she does handle food a lot. And one time someone pissed her off soooo much she slipped poison into their meal! No one ever suspected her because of her nature! So she's already a murderer!" Monokuma laughed some more before the screen turned off.

.

Eliza squeaked upon hearing that "I-I'd never do that!"

"Yeah, these things would have to be bullshit…" Chase frowned "There's no way she could do something like that…" He looked over at David. "Sorry of accusing yo-"

David swiftly punched him in the face "Asshole!"

Eliza looked around and took a few steps back.

Gabriel glared at Xi "What the hell man! You kinda put Eliza in danger there!"

Xi simply mocked laugh "Like I really care. Someone can play my video, and it won't really make a different for me."

Marisa, upon hearing that, got really angry "Oh yeah?!" She took the monopad from under her hat and slammed it onto the table "Well let's listen to it, shall we?"

Gabriel grabbed it from the table "Alright! I think that's it for today! You can all go back to your rooms!"

Marisa grabbed her video and walked away.

Soon, everyone else did.

Nonam started to leave before Arianna grabbed his arm "I need to see your motive video"

Nonam remained silent for a bit. "..."

.

Nonam opened the door to his room and walked in "I got Chase for mine, nothing interesting however. It isn't really a reason to kill him" Nonam said as he put the Monopad on the table.

.

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The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to Nonam Nins. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Chase Snips! What is with him? He's a world class flirt, yes. But when was he ever really successful at what he did? I heard he was sent to jail once for harassing a girl a lot. Got a restraining order put on him. Is that really someone you want around your beloved?" Monokuma laughed and the screen went dark.

.

Nonam shrugged "Not really anything we didn't know about him…" He sighed "Well, that's it for today.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The screen lit up to reveal Monokuma "Hello everyone! I have an announcement to make! It is currently 10 pm! Time for bed!" The screen shut off.

Arianna slowly nodded "I'll see you tomorrow" She smiled. She left the room and headed back to hers. She had seen 3 of the 14 videos. If she could see them all… Maybe she could stop someone from becoming a victim…

But sadly, things don't work that way…

.

"Hello, it's so nice to meet you" _The voice said to me._

 _I smiled and gave my reply. Hoping I wasn't being terrible at talking._

"So, today is the first day at Hope Peak Academy?" They turned to look at me. "Look, I know you are probably worried that your talent isn't good enough. But trust me! It's going to be pretty good. People will love you!"

 _I smiled softly and walked with the person talking to me. The first day of school is going to be great!_

.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The screen lit up to reveal Monokuma's face "This is the morning announcement! I hope you all have a fantastic killing game!" He laughed before shutting the TV's off.

Arianna got up and shook her head. She made her way to the cafeteria and smiled upon seeing everyone still very alive. She took a seat beside Nonam, who seemed much more happy than yesterday. "You seem better!" She smiled.

Nonam looked at her and smiled "Yeah, I was just feeling a little sick yesterday. Guess the events of two days ago really hit me deep…"

 _Dammit, now I feel bad for suspecting him!_

"Well today's a new day" She smiled "And we are all still here. Meaning no one has died yet" Arianna said

"And no one needs to die, ever…" He sighed.

"Yeah…" Arianna replied.

"Hey, I'm going to the library today. You are free to come hang out with me today if you want. Then I'm thinking of going to the pool after!"

Arianna nodded "I would love to come hang out with you! If… if I have time, that is!"

Nonam smiled and got up, leaving to head back to his room.

 _Yeah, I can finally talk to Nonam about some certain things about this motive…_

She went back to her room once she was done eating.

Nonam hadn't exactly specified a time, but he did return to his room. She lied down on her bed and relaxed.

.

After an hour or two had passed, she decided it was time to do something. "Should I go hang out with Nonam…?" Yeah, she really needed to talk to him about everything.

She went out of her room and made her way to the staircase to the second floor. Once there she made a beeline straight to the library.

When she entered the room, it was just Nonam there. He was looking through some books with a big grin on his face. He could have picked out books yesterday. Why wait till today. "Hey Nonam" She smiled.

He placed the books down and started to think "We can't exactly make everyone unsee what they did. However, Eliza still does have a high target on her back now… It would appear that the videos I've seen have been true. So it's no doubt that the videos we haven't seen can be true also. If we can figure out who has who's video. We could make everyone to afraid to actually commit murder…"

She nodded a little bit "That's a good idea, however, I don't think anyone will want to help out"

"That's the problem…" Nonam sighed "Everyone wants to be secretive about what they got as to not put anyone in danger…" He looked at a book and started to think "Although there is one person who would be willing to steal all the monopads…"

"Who would want to do th-" Arianna started "No! We are not working with him!"

"Well Xi got Gabriel's monopad without him knowing. Maybe he can get the others. And he wouldn't be stupid enough to kill one of us because we would easily accuse him of doing it."

Arianna was now in deep thought.

 _Was that the only way there was to do this… No! Nonam must be out of his mind to think that's the solution. But despite how crazy it sounds… it actually seems reasonable_.

She sighed "Fine… do you know where he is?"

There was a moment of silent.

.

 _KLANG! KLING!_

"What… the fuck…" Arianna mumbled.

Nonam simply shrugged.

Arti and Xi were having a sword duel, Xi, somehow keeping up. But that's probably because Arti was holding back.

"Where the fuck did Xi get a sword?"

Arti glanced over at Arianna before blocking a hit from Xi "Sword… Collection… In… My… Room"! He kicked Xi in the knee, who fell down.

"Alright! Alright! I think I'm beat. I expect no less from the Ultimate Swordwielder!" Xi smirked. He was then kneed in the face "Never try and challenge me again like that by stealing my sword!" He grabbed his sword and headed back to his room.

"Man, I'm just trying to have fun and everyone is being so mean…" Xi frowned.

Arianna sighed "Xi… we need your help"

"Well, how much do you want to pay me to steal all the monopads?" He smirked.

"Steal the? How did you-" Arianna almost stuttered.

"Oh please! It's written all over your face!" He smirked "Do you really want to trust me? I could do what I did with Gabriel and expose the video to everyone? Now you don't want that, do you?"

Nonam was about to say something but couldn't. Xi had them cornered already. Typical of someone who played with the minds of others.

"Of course I'll do it, but my cost is that you have to linger on if I will reveal it or not." He smirked "It's like gambling. Will you get what you want or will you lose? But of course, you don't have to decide right now. Tomorrow will do just fine. But hurry up, the clock is ticking…" He sneered before leaving the room.

Nonam sighed "I'm heading back to my room. You can join me later in the pool, if you are free, that is!"

Arianna smiled and waved goodbye "I'll hopefully be able to make it!" She walked back to her room and sat on her bed.

.

Some time had passed and Arianna thought it was now time to go head to the pool. She walked into the changing room. She slowly got undressed and put on the swimsuit. She made sure she looked somewhat decent before going to open the door to the pool

However.

It didn't open.

"What…?" She said to herself. "That isn't right…" She walked out and headed for the entrance of the pool from the hallway and tried that door. But it wielded the same result. "Dammit!" She mumbled. She was going to try and go to the boy's bathroom but she remembered what Monokuma said, about being punished. AKA being killed.

The more she thought the more she got worried "There's definitely something wrong…" She tried to look inside the windows of the pool but they were very opaque if anything.

She started to freak out more and turned to look at a metal garbage can. She started hitting it against the window until it started to crack. After a solid minute, the window let go and she fell in, cuts on her legs and hands from falling. "Oww…"

.

When she slowly looked up, her horrors had been confirmed. Someone was hanging upside down from the ceiling. Their arms were hanging limply into the water, their faces, also in the water. There was some hair ripped off, floating in the water. A broken light with the cord was in the water too, somehow floating. There was no sign of blood on the ground, but the body. The body was covered in it, even having it leak into the pool. The body was of the Ultimate Rebel, Terra Rea.

.

 _Terra? Oh god no! Not her! Who the fuck did this! I need to find out who this fucker is and make them pay! She hadn't done anything wrong! Yes she had a temper but she still cared about people, she just didn't let people see it! She still had a life in front of her._

.

 _Fuck who did this, fuck them! I will kill them myself!_

.

Thirteen Students remaining


	5. Chapter 2: Dangers of Envy - Deadly Life

_What the fuck! Why her? God fucking dammit I was just talking to her yesterday!_

Arianna fell to her knees, almost crying.

Some sound came from behind her. It was Nonam walking in through the broken window "Yeah… the boy's bathroom door wouldn't ope-" He then saw the body and froze. "W-w-what?"

Arianna looked at Nonam "GO GET THE OTHERS!" She cried out.

He took a few steps back, tripping over the bottom of the window. He ran off.

Arianna looked back at the body "What the fuck…!" She slowly got up "I'm going to find who did this Terra… I swear… I will!"

.

.

.

Soon, everyone had gathered and multiple shrieks were heard.

"N-n-n-ot again!" Eliza squeaked.

"Aww, I actually liked her" Delilah crossed her arms, pouting.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The screen lit up "A body has been discovered! Oh? What's that! You are already there! Wait, not everyone! Wait? Where's Terra? Oh! There she is, dead, head in the water! Nyeck! Nyeck! Nyeck! What a tragedy!" The TV closed itself

Xi saw it and shrugged "Alright, so I guess that means who ever had her video is the killer. So, will everyone want to reveal their motive video?" He asked.

Marisa took out hers "This one is about you"

Xi went silent for a bit "Anyone else?"

No one wanted to, not after seeing Eliza's. They feared that theirs could be true.

Xi narrowed his eyes "You guys are all terrible at this…" He sighed "Well fine, be that way. I'll go investigate elsewhere" With that, he was gone.

Suddenly.

Bear.

Monokuma appeared out of the pool "What's with this guy?" Monokuma tilted his head. He turned to look at Terra "Wow, what a terrible way to die. Maybe I should bring her back so she die in a more better way"

"What do you want Monokuma?" David crossed his arms.

"Oh? Did you already forget about the Monokuma Files?" Monokuma tilted his head. He took out a tablet and gave it to Arianna "Happy investigating!" And with that, he was gone.

Arianna frowned and opened the Monokuma file.

.

 **Monokuma File #2**

.

 **The victim is the Ultimate Rebel Terra Rea, she was found hanging upside down with her head in the pool.**

.

 **Her time of death is approximately 1:00pm. Three hours later, the body was discovered.**

.

Arianna frowned when she read that. There was barely anything on this file. So it wasn't going to be of much use. Everyone had already scattered to investigate. So it was up to her and Nonam basically.

"Let's get this over with…" Arianna sighed.

She and Nonam walked over to the pool to take in what immediately came to their attention.

"So there's a pool of blood directly under her body. Probably from the wounds in her body." Nonam said. "It's strange… however…"

"What is?" Arianna asked.

He went into deep thought for a moment before shaking his head "Nothing…"

Arianna looked up at the rope.

 _Where could the culprit even get rope… there wasn't any storage room_.

Nonam walked over to the other side of the water "Possibly a struggle…" He pointed out.

"How come?" Arianna asked.

He grabbed something from the water and showed it to her "A clump of hair… of her hair…"

Arianna frowned even more. Just seeing it made the already painful feeling even more painful.

Soon, something glinted inside the water. "Do you see that?" She asked.

"See what?" Nonam turned towards her.

She dove into the water, coming out shortly with a small blade, with some faded blood on it "This…"

"A blade… probably what was used to stab her…" Nonam said.

"Yeah…" She said sadly.

"Being sad now won't change what happened. She probably wouldn't have let you be sad…" Nonam said to her.

She took a deep breath "You are right…"

David walked over to the knife "Hmm… well, this knife definitely came from the kitchen. Although it's not commonly used."

"And how would you know that" Arianna crossed her arms.

"I'm a blacksmith, jackass…" David said coldly before walking around.

"You need to… calm down a little…"

Arianna crossed her arms angrily.

"Now let's go back to investigating. We don't have much time in the first place…" He said.

Arianna nodded and looked back at the body. Terra was tied down from the legs like the Monokuma File indeed say. And her head and upper arms were under water. So clearly she had drowned.

 _Wait… what's this… are her feet… wet?_

Her feet were indeed wet, dripping down her body, but why are her feet the source of where the water is dripping…

Nonam shook his head "Now that we got all the little details out of the way, why the hell is there a broken light in there?" He pointed out.

"Yeah… that doesn't really make sense…" She mumbled.

 _Strange… the cord looks like it's still plugged in… but the water is fine…_

Eliza squeaked a little behind them "T-there's a trail of water leading to the storage room" She pointed out.

They both looked over at the trial and soon realized it was the only sign of water outside of the pool.

"Thanks Eliza…" Arianna mumbled.

She smiled softly "N-No problem!"

Arianna and Nonam made their way to the storage room and entered it.

Inside, Arti was examining the place.

The two continued to follow the trail of water until it suddenly… stopped.

"Wait… what?" Arianna asked, confused.

Arti simply pointed up to where the water stopped. "It's up there…"

Arianna looked up and noticed a small raft like object. It looked like it was able to float, but it would only be able to hold one person before sinking.

"Why is that there…?" Arianna just kept looking at it.

Arti shrugged "Beats me. But it wasn't there yesterday…"

"Why is it the only thing that's wet besides the body. There should be a trial that the killer left" Nonam said.

Arti shrugged "Although it's not the only thing that's wet" He pointed something out. "One of those ropes are also wet…"

 _Rope… that would explain where it was gotten. But, hmm…._

"This is weird…" Nonam said. He was looking at a power box "Why is this turned off. This seems to odd to just let go…"

"Well, let's keep it in mind for the trial…" Arianna said.

"There actually isn't much else in here…" Arti said. "I thought there would be more…"

The two left the storage room and saw Larissa pondering over something.

"You found something Larissa?" Nonam asked.

"Well, somewhat. I'm not sure if it will be useful…" She sighed. "But, the pipe that the rope is tied to isn't connected to the ceiling per say, but it is connected to the wall"

"I don't know how much that he-" Arianna was going to say.

Nonam nodded "That could be useful…"

"Or it could help…" Arianna rolled her eyes.

Arianna walked over to a poster that was on the wall "Huh… the pool rules…"

.

 **Pool Rules**

.

 **The pool is closed at night. Any access to it is strictly forbidden.**

 **You must use your Monopad to access the changing rooms.**

 **Your Monopad will only work on the changing room corresponding to the Monopad owner's gender.**

 **You are not allowed to borrow or lend a Monopad from a fellow remaining classmate. THAT INCLUDES STEALING!**

.

"Well, that seems about it for the rules…" She sighed

"Well" Nonam said "That should be it for this room. Should we go check out Terra's room?"

Arianna was taken aback "What? Why do we need to check her room…?"

"For her motive video. It would be better to see what she had." He said.

"Huh, I rather not! I know she has mine" Arianna said.

"It won't hurt to check…" Nonam said. He was already leaving when he stopped himself "The doors, they were all blocked…" He got into a deep thought.

"Yeah…" Arianna said.

He started to think even more "How did they get out…?" He walked over to the one blocking the pool entrance "Nothing really here…"

Arianna walked over to the one blocking the boy's changing room and noticed something. "Wait a second… Why is there a small string attached to this one. It seems pretty sturdy too…"

"Well, we will see during the trial" Nonam said, leaving by the broken window.

When they left the pool, Arianna turned to Nonam "Hey, we should check the changing rooms anyways…"

Nonam nodded, "It would probably be better to search them too." He said as he walked into the boys changing room.

Arianna made her way into the girls changing room. Nothing caught her attention as everything seemed like the way it should be. But just because, she checked the garbage. But found a wet girls bathing suit. Like it was recently used "Huh…" She mumbled to herself. She quickly got out of the room to tell Nonam that the person had to be a girl, but was stopped by Nonam himself.

"I found a recently used boy swimsuit in the trash…"

Arianna's smiled faded to a frown "I… I found a recently used girl's swimsuit in the trash…"

"So, that still doesn't help…" Nonam sighed.

"No… no it doesn't…" She sighed "Alright… let's go to Terra's room…" She started to walk away with Nonam.

While walking in the hallway, they passed by Tristan, who was fiddling around with his motive video "Come on…" He mumbled.

"Tristan?" Arianna tilted her head.

He looked over at her, still fiddling around with his motive video "How… how do you turn this on?"

"What?" Nonam said a little blankly.

"I… I don't know how to work technology…" He admitted.

"But you said you watched your video…" Arianna pointed out.

Tristan frowned but soon smiled "I didn't want to look like the odd one out. I thought everyone else had looked at theirs…" He admitted. "So… how do I turn this on?"

Nonam took the Monopad and showed him the button on the side "Press this"

He smiled brightly "Thank you!" He rushed to head back to his room.

"Wait!" Arianna shouted.

"Let him go, he did indeed not watch his video…" Nonam said "He did indeed not watch it…"

"How can you be so sure…?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"The number at the bottom said zero. I didn't think much of it when I first watched mine, but when I showed it to you, I noticed it changed to two. Which probably means how many times you watched it…" Nonam said

"Hmm…" Arianna started to say.

Soon, they both arrived to Terra's room.

Arianna tried to open it but it was locked "Dammit… Welp! We tried!"

Nonam rolled his eyes and got down on one knee. He took out what appeared to be a pin and stuck it in the hole of the doorknob.

"What are you doing?" Arianna said.

"What does it look like?" Soon, a click was heard and Nonam opened the door.

She seemed even more angry "Since when could you do THAT?"

He shrugged "It's not like it's hard to do…" He stepped into the room and saw something he didn't think he was going to see.

"Xi?" He asked confused.

Xi was holding the motive video that belonged to Terra "Oh, and to think I would be the only one here…" He frowned teasingly. "Well, the more the merrier I guess… Time to watch this motive video!" He pressed play on the video.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to Terra Rea. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Arianna Rodriguez! What is with her? The famed actor! She started pretty young but how did she even get to be in there? She was a backup for the original actor who was going to play the role, in case she got sick. But one day, the girl vanished without a trace, so who else to fill in the role but Arianna herself? I say she killed the girl. She is a two faced bitch after all! HAHAHAHAHA!" And then the video turned off.

.

Nonam was thinking deeply. "Hmm… that's three for three…"

"Like three of them are true?" Xi smirked.

"What? Mine isn't tru-" Arianna tried to defend herself.

"We know it's true!" Xi said "I'm pretty sure all of them are true."

"No th-" Arianna started to protest.

"Moving on…" Nonam said. "You know what, Xi, let's see what you got for your video…"

"Oh? Mine? Well I thought you'd never ask!" He pulled out his own and pressed play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to Xi Loung. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Tristan Everton! What is with him? You want to know how lowly he values human life? He rather save an animal than a human. And it has happened before! Humans are the cause for many of the animals problems, so in his eyes, why should humans live?" He laughed a little more before the video closed.

.

"Well that doesn't really help…" Nonam sighed "The only thing we know is that you didn't have Terra's. But it doesn't mean you couldn't have watched it. You did steal Gabriel's motive video without him knowing…"

"Well you could have also have watched it" Xi pointed out. "You did just break into Terra's room…"

Nonam crossed his arms, not wanting to reply.

"Huh… hey Nonam. Let's head to the kitchen! To see if David was right!" Arianna tried to get away from a potential argument.

He nodded and left the room. Leaving Xi there alone.

.

Soon they both arrived to the kitchen and saw Gabriel and Delilah.

"Oh, Nonam, Arianna. You stopped by" Gabriel said. "As soon as David mentioned the knife, I came to the kitchen. And yes, there is a knife missing…"

"So it's obvious the killer took the knife. Simple as that." Delilah smiled.

"Weellllllll…" Gabriel started to say. "I would think so but it seems a lot of these rooms have rules…" He pointed to a poster that was hidden behind some dishes.

"Rules are boring!" Delilah pouted.

"More rules…?" Arianna crossed her arms…

Nonam sighed and walked over to them.

.

 **Kitchen Rules**

.

 **Any utensils may be taken out of the room at any time.**

 **Exceptions are the knives, which cannot be carried out.**

 **The Kitchen is closed at night. No late night snack.**

.

"Did David… lie?" Nonam crossed his arms.

"Bastard…" Arianna said, storming out of the room.

Nonam looked at her and followed her.

Gabriel tried to stop them "WAIT!" But they had already left.

On the way back to the pool, the duo ran into Marisa.

Arianna thought of something "Marisa! Could we see your motive video?"

"W-what? Why?" She took a step back.

"Well you said it was Xi's right. It would be great to see what we are dealing with…" Arianna said.

Marisa slowly shook her head "I don't think… that now is a good time…" She frowned "We can't afford to distrust each other more than we already do…" She turned around and walked away.

Arianna frowned "What the hell was that? She was so eager to show her video yesterday!"

Nonam sighed "Let's not worry about that right now. We need to talk to David…"

They both went upstairs and opened the door to the pool.

"How can you be so certain…?" Chase glared at David.

"Look, it can't be anything BUT a kitchen knife." David said.

"Clearly the rules of the Kitchen contradicts that…" Jenna says "Although I do think there's easily a loophole that could be exploited…"

"Well clearly there must have been" David crossed his arms.

"I see you came to talk to him about the same thing…" Nonam said.

"Yeah…" Jenna said.

"Hey! Nonam!" Arianna called out.

Nonam walked over to Arianna. "What is it?"

"There's a weird substance on the rope…" Arianna said.

Nonam tried to get a closer look, before concluding what is was. "Glue…" He said. "Hmm… That's… interesting…"

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The screen lit up to reveal Monokuma "That is enough investigation for today!" He laughed "Everyone head over to the elevator! It's time for the class trial!" The screen then turned off.

"Already…?" Nonam frowned.

"I guess…" Arianna sighed. She looked back at Terra's body.

 _In the short time I got to know you, I learned that you weren't what people saw you as. You shouldn't have died and whoever killed you is a monster. And they deserve to be executed! The fucker… I will avenge you…!_

Everyone slowly made their way to the elevator. Everyone was silent as they waited for the elevator to get to their floor. Soon, the low rumbling sound was heard. And the doors opened. Everyone stepped into the elevator and the doors closed. Still, no one said anything. The only sound was the elevator itself, which was rumbling lowly as he decided into hell. No one wanted this, nor expected to be back here anytime soon. The tensions were high. After what felt like a lifetime, the door opened to reveal the trial grounds. It was the same as before, although a few noticeable differences. The wallpaper was different, and not just that, but the podium for Christopher and Terra now had a picture of their face, but with an x across them. Although Terra had a check instead of an x.

Everyone slowly made it to their respective podiums.

 _One of us did this…_

Several pictures appeared.

One of Arti reaching for his Katana in his sheath

One of Eliza wearing a chef hat too big for her.

One of Terra, with her arms crossed, looking the other way. It was redded out.

One of David playing around with a knife.

One of Jenna adjusting her glasses, clearly flipping someone off.

 _One of us did something so terrible…_

One of Arianna rolling her eyes.

One of Marisa writing things down in a notebook.

One of Tristan holding a mouse in his hands.

One of Catrina listening to headphones. Although this one is redded out.

One of Chase with his hands behind his back, acting chill.

One of Christopher looking worried. It was redded out.

 _One of us killed Terra…_

One of Larissa holding her hands together.

One of Xi looking like pure malice with his crazy eyes.

One of Delilah with an adorable face, trying to be seductive.

One of Gabriel, covering his mouth, in deep thought.

One of Nonam, right in the middle, looking confident.

 _I will expose the killer!_

.

Class Trial

In Session!

.

"Well." Jenna started off "This as probably intrigued everyone else. But the Monokuma File did not specify a cause of death."

"You are right…" Nonam started to think "There are many culprits for the murder method. But we can't determine the perfect one…"

"With her being tied up, she probably wouldn't have been able to fight back. Maybe struggle a little…" Arianna pointed out.

"Want to know what confuses me?" David askes. "Why isn't there any blood anywhere else in the room? Only on the victim and in the pool…"

 _That is true. There was only blood in the water and on Terra… And I think I know why that could be..._

"She was already upside down when it happened. None of the blood when over her top wound, which makes me think that after she was tied up. She was stabbed." Arianna said.

.

"But that… opens up a lot of new things…" Chase sighed.

Arianna looked over at him "Like what…?"

"How was she able to be restraint? There was no sign of any other injuries or any chemicals in her system.

.

"We don't know that for sure!" Arianna called out.

"What was that…?" Chase looked at Arianna.

"The Monokuma File didn't specify that there WASN'T any chemicals involved!" Arianna said. "So we can't rule out anything out just yet!"

"Well…" Jenna said. "That's a great deduction but me and Chase went to the lab. Nonam and Gabriel set up a trap that would indicate if someone used any chemicals. And, the trap was still there."

Chase scratched the back of his head "I guess I should have mentioned that…"

"Yeah, you should have" Arianna crossed her arms. "Why didn't you mention this Nonam…?"

"Well, only me and Gabriel could know at the time. And I didn't think it was important during the investigation…" He shrugged.

"Anyways…" Gabriel said "Let's get back on track! Now that we know that she was stabbed after being hunged upside down. We must figure out why…"

"I don't think why is very important at the moment. Let's figure out how she got hanged upside down" David said. "Then we can figure out why she was stabbed."

.

"Well obviously the culprit went into the water to hang the body" Chase said.

"So naive of a conclusion…" David sighed.

"Look, the killer would have had a difficult time to hang the body while in the water" Gabriel said.

"W-what… if the body was hung over the floor?" Eliza said shyly.

.

"I think Eliza's on to something" Arianna started to think.

"I-I am?" She squeaked.

"The body could have been tied on the floor and moved across the pipe. So the killer had no reason to go in the wat-"

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't make much sense to me!" David shouted out.

"Wait… what?" Arianna looked at David angrily.

"Seriously, the killer had to go in the water!" David started out. "To stab Terra's body to the condition it was now! Are you saying that she wasn't stabbed at all?"

"What? No!" Arianna shouted out. "The killer never had to once go inside the water"

"Then how could they have gotten to the body!" David shouted out. "It's impossible!"

"The raft…" Arianna said.

"The… what?" David seemed confused.

"Arti, Nonam, and I discovered a raft in the storage room of the pool…" Arianna said.

"So the raft was used to get to the body?" Tristan tilted his head "Neat!"

"So what proof was there that the raft was used…?" Chase asked.

 _Oh, there was definitely proof for sure._

"There was a wet trail leading from the pool to the storage room…" Arianna started "Not to mention that it was dripping water…"

"Hmm…" Chase started to think "Yeah, I guess that does explain it. I thought that that was the trail left by the culprit."

"Yeah…" Arianna said.

"How did…" Tristan started to think "How did the culprit carry the raft back without getting wet themselves…?"

 _Yeah, I saw what was used…_

"The wet rope could have been tied to the raft" Arianna said.

"Yes…" Nonam agreed. "The rope was back in the storage room, seemingly put away. That way the culprit could have escaped all forms of getting wet... "

"Hmmm…" Gabriel started to think "This is very odd of a case… Now that we know how the culprit could have stabbed Terra, we should figure out how the victim got the victim tied up in the first place. None of that adds up. Nonam made sure of it, but we made sure nothing like the knockout gas could be made. As well as the poisons…"

"Did anyone else know…?" Larissa asked.

Gabriel took a deep sigh.

"Yes, I did" Jenna crossed her arms "Even with Nonam's seemingly vast knowledge, Gabriel wanted a second opinion. Unless he wanted to make sure Nonam didn't lie…" She sighed.

Nonam remained silent.

"Even then, with my amount of knowledge… Nonam probably knew way more. My field isn't exactly chemicals…" She sighed, hating to admit it. "It's very unlikely, giving what Nonam proved to us so far, but he could have very well snuck something pass."

Nonam, still remained silent.

"Well…?" Arti crossed his arms.

Nonam shook his head "Jenna would have noticed if I tried anything anyways. Even if I wanted to, there was no point…"

Gabriel crossed his arms "Although you seemed very against the thought of letting Jenna help…"

"The whole thing should have been kept between me and you, we shouldn't have got anyone else involved. That just raises the chances someone will work their way around the trap!" Nonam defended himself. "Let's talk about how the killer got out…."

.

Arianna sighed "Alright, all three entrances to the pool were blocked by heavy sandbags."

"Is it possible there's another way out than those three doors?" Jenna suggested.

David shook his head "No, those were clearly the only way out"

"What if the culprit blocked the door while on the other side of the door?" Tristan suggested

.

"Yeah…" Arianna said after Tristan spoke. "I think that's exactly what happened here… The culprit attached a string to the doorknob and to one of sandbags. That way they could slam the door quickly, pulling the sandbag to block the door. Which is probably why we found one in front of the boy's changing room."

.

"So…" Chase started to think "It needs to be a boy…! I vow that it's David!"

"Will you get off my back!" David shouted back at him "Whatever you saw in my video is false!"

"We can't just assume it's a boy…" Jenna said.

"Well there's no way a girl could have gone into the boy's changing room" Chase crossed his arms.

.

"Actually!" Arianna refuted back "There was one way…"

"But the pool rules state that you could only use your corresponding changing room" Chase said.

"Yeah, it does. But they could have used a different monopad to get in…" Arianna said.

Tristan decided to hop into this conversation "Wasn't there a rule against that too? About borrowing, lending, and stealing?"

"There was…" Arianna said.

 _But there was a specific thing that was also said…_

"The remaining students it said. It didn't say anything about the students that were deceased. And we had a boy and girl killed already. Perfect for the culprit. They could hide their gender in a case that relies heavily on it…"

"So are you 100% confirming it's a girl…" Arti crossed his arms "Because if so, that leaves 6 suspects"

"I'm not saying that…!" Arianna crossed her arms "I'm just saying we can't rule them out. It could still very well be a boy who wanted it to seem like they were a girl. Or maybe a girl who wanted to make it seem like they were a boy."

Xi rolled his eyes "Is there even any evidence that they could have gone to both of the changing rooms?"

 _Oh, trust me. There was_

"The wet swimsuits…" Arianna said "There was one in each, in the same condition. Wet, and in the garbage."

"Sounds like my ex" Chase crossed his arms. "Except she wasn't in the trash. She was the trash…"

"Ooooo! Sounds hot!" Delilah giggled.

Gabriel shook his head "Let's get back to the case…"

"Yes…" Arianna said, very unamused by the way Chase took this conversation too "They were both in identical condition. Drenched! Almost indiscernible…"

"How… how were they wet…? I thought we already said that the culprit didn't get wet…" Larissa asked.

 _How were they wet, that's easy_

"They wet them after the murder…" Arianna said "To give the illusion that they were wet"

"Why would they suspect need to avoid getting wet in the first place?" Gabriel asked.

"What?" Arianna asked.

"Y-yeah…" Eliza said "If they were just going to wet the suits after… what was the point…?"

 _The point…? The point was…_

"To hide the changing room they went to first?" Arianna suggested.

"Most likely…" Nonam said "If they were going to do the whole swimsuit thing. There was no point if a water trail led them to their changing room. They also would have used the changing room corresponding to their gender. Because if they didn't when they first changed, Terra would have been really confused…"

"She would have been" Gabriel said. "And Terra would have known something was up…"

"She… isn't exactly the most trusting person ever…" Chase crossed his arms.

 _No… she did trust people. She just didn't like to show it. But yes, she would acted suspicious…_

.

"Isn't it about time we got back to the cause of death…?" Nonam said.

"It's… too early to determine that…" Gabriel said.

"Well when will it be time. If we can know how she died, things will start to clear up!" Nonam said.

"Or maybe we should decide how she even got tied up in the first place…" Arti said "She had to be conscious for it!"

.

"She did have to be conscious for it!" Arianna said. "There's was no signs of any injuries to the head. The Monokuma file only shows injuries where she was stabbed. And oddly enough, marks for all the parts that were under water… Probably because she was submerged at those areas"

"So now…" Nonam started to think "The question lies with, how did she get tied up in the first place…?"

"What if she knew about the rope beforehand…?" Xi brought up

"What… do you mean…?" Gabriel said.

"What if she saw the rope was tied to the pipe. Have any of you been to a lake where a rope was tied to a tree, and you swung with it to send yourself into the water?" Xi smirked.

"So… that means Terra would have willingly approached the cord…?" Arianna started to think.

"But then… then…" Eliza started to think. "How does that get her tied up…" She mumbled.

"There's probably a lot of evidence for that…" Xi looked at Arianna "Go on…"

 _I actually have a few evidence for this. I should give them all._

"Well…" Arianna started "First of all, the rope must have been tied to the pipe over the floor, then glue could have been placed in the loop where you place your feet. So the killer must have told Terra they were adding something to the pool and wanted her to test it out. She agreed. seeing nothing harmful in it. So when Terra tried it out, her leg brushed against the water and got stuck because of the blue. The killer must have then done something to the rope to have made it so she was lifted up. That way, Terra got into the position she was in."

"That makes a lot of sense…" Chase said. "But what about the glue…?"

"What about it…?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"Where did someone get it…?" Chase started to think.

"Well… from a classroo-" Arianna started to say

"That can't be it… when we checked the classrooms when we first got here…" Chase started "There was no supplies…"

Arianna was now in deep thought.

"It's true…" Nonam said "Not even a pencil was there…"

"Well then how did Larissa get a pencil in the first place?" Arianna looked at her.

"Me?! Are you accusing me now?" Larissa said "Just so you know, I always carry around a pencil. And it was in my pocket when I woke up…"

"She's right." Nonam said "We all had a pencil when we woke up. But no glue. However, somehow… Someone found glue…"

Gabriel sighed "The more we solve this, the more mysteries arises from it…"

Xi shrugged with a sly smirk on his face "One mystery at a time… But isn't it about time we covered the mystery of the knife…?"

.

"What is there to cover?" Arti crossed his arms "It was obviously taken from the kitchen"

"It couldn't have!" Chase crossed his arms "A lot of people already came to the conclusion because of the rules set up in the kitchen!"

"Yeah? So?" Arti crossed his lines "The rules don't mean nothing when they can be worked around!"

.

"So far, the only thing we learned is that the rule are meant to have loopholes to help the killer. Take the lab rules and pool rules. They are only there to confuse us. The rules of the kitchen stated that knives couldn't be carried out…" Arianna said "What if you just tossed the knife out and quickly picked it up without anyone noticing?"

"Exactly. Which means… someone had to have known about that trick, and maybe even used it before!" Xi smirked "You know who, I presume…?"

Arianna sighed.

 _One of the people who would have known about this is…_

"Eliza…" Arianna said.

"I-I-I-I didn't know about the rule!" She squeaked.

"Then how did you even bring the knives out in the first place?" Xi crossed his arms.

"I… I... Alright I knew about the rule! But only because Monokuma warned me!" She said.

"Why would Monokuma warn you…?" Xi asked.

Monokuma, speaking up for the first time "Well because there's no fun in dying by the rules if you don't know what they are! So yes, I told her about the rules to be niiiice!" He sighed "But also, that IS the only person I told the rules too!"

Xi crossed his arms again "Which means you are the only person who could have known about that!"

"Eeep!" Eliza cowered "It wasn't me!"

 _I don't think it's Eliza either… but I have no evidence for it…_

"Well, until we find someone else…" Chase sighed "We can only assume it's you."

Arianna was in deep thought until she remembered something someone dear to her said.

.

" _Sometimes, you have to lie to survive" Terra said_

.

 _I'm going to make sure Eliza gets out of this safely. I don't believe she did this, nor is she capable of doing this. I will prove her innocence. Even… even if I have to fucking lie about it!_

.

"Look, it's stated in the rules that it couldn't be carried out" Chase said. "And the only one who knew about it was Eliza!"

"I… It wasn't me!" Eliza said weakly.

"We can't be to sure about it…" Nonam crossed his arms.

"Well we know for a fact that the knife came from the kitchen!" Chase shouted back.

.

"How are we so sure that it was even a kitchen knife to begin with?" Arianna said. "I've worked my way in the kitchen a lot and it doesn't resemble anything like a kitchen knife…"

David, looked her into the eyes. He could tell she was lying. She stared back, glaring at him. He could expose her lies if he wanted to… but…

"I think that might of been my bad…" David said "Now that I think about it, it doesn't look entirely like a kitchen knife…"

 _Wait… is he going along with my lie?_

"To be fair, I only really make weapons used to be weapons. Not kitchen utensils. So even I could have been mistaken…" He said.

"S-see! It couldn't have been Eliza because it's not from the kitchen!" Arianna said, gaining her composure back.

"Well, it would appear so." Xi sighed.

Nonam shook his head "Can we please go over the method of death…?"

"Wait!" Xi glared at him "We aren't done with the knife just yet… if the knife wasn't from the kitchen… where was it from?"

"Oh no…" Gabriel said. "There were knives in the lab… but… but Nonam said there was no point in hiding them. Since the kitchen had some anyways, so if someone really wanted them. They could go to the kitchen…"

"So…" Xi chuckled "Not only did he want the knives to remain there, but he also was one of the people who knew about the trap…" He smirked. "I say we found our new lead suspect…" He grinned, turning towards Arianna "You know what they say, Arianna… Out of the frying pan… and into the fire…!"

.

.

.

Intermission!

.

.

.

"Not to mention he seems so intent of having this trial go his way…" Xi smirked "Have anything to say…? Nonam?"

Despite being called out on it, Nonam, remained silent.

"Well, doesn't this just seem all too convenient?" Xi started to laugh "The one who got us through the first trial! Is the second murderer! Priceless!" He started to laugh very crazily.

"Nonam…" Gabriel said "Say something…!"

But still… he remained silent.

"Well, how about we do what dear hold Nonam told us to do…" Xi smirked.

"By finding what killed Terra!" Delilah cheered "I love it!"

.

"Well, with everything we can to, I think she died by stab wounds" Arti said.

"No, that seems way to obvious… think! The water!" Chase said.

"That's also too obvious!" Arti shot back.

"Well at least it's better than stab wounds" Chase crossed his arms.

Xi sighed "You guys are all lost.

"Hey" Tristan smiled "What about that thing in the water?"

.

"You mean the light?" Arianna crossed her arms. "Yeah, that seems like it could have to do with something. It just seems so out of place…"

"Didn't… didn't you mention something weird about the Monokuma File?" Marisa brought up.

 _I did… what I said was…_

"Are you talking about the different coloured part I mentioned on the Monokuma file?" Arianna asked.

She nodded "Yes, it wasn't anything like a blunt force or stabbing would do…" Marisa started to think "What if… that's electrocution damage?"

Tristan tilted his head "Like an eel?"

"Is this boy really that oblivious to technology?" Xi shook his head.

"Well…" Arianna started "He didn't watch his motive video until Nonam told him how to watch it…"

"What?" Xi sneered "I call bullshit on that! There's no way he couldn't have watched it! He even admitted to watching it! You expect me to believe such a li-"

"The numbers…" Nonam mumbled "They represent how many times you've watched the video… when we saw him… his said zero… I showed Arianna my motive video, which was about Chase, and it's number changed to two…"

Xi now had a big grin on his face. "Is thaaaat so? Oh… I do have a question for someone now… Do you know who that person is, Arianna?"

 _Xi wants to ask someone a question… is it *that* person…_

"I assume you mean Gabriel right…?" Arianna said.

"His little number wasn't a zero before I played it… It was a one!" Xi pointed out.

Gabriel crossed his arms.

"So, that would mean that little Peterson watched his video…" Xi smirked.

"I did…" He admitted "But I only said I didn't because my credibility would be out the window if I said I also watched it! We shouldn't have watched those motive videos… I shouldn't have watched my motive video! Because we all did, someone is dead!" He shouted out. "Don't you see? We are all falling into Monokuma's trap each time! Because of the videos! We all distrust one another!"

"I'm curious…" Xi grinned "Who has Gabriel's video?"

But no one replied.

"Ah… damn…" Xi sighed "I was hoping one of you would be smart enough to show it off.

"Even…" Marisa said "Even if we wanted to. All of us should stop watching the videos!" She yelled out "I don't care who the video is about! We gain nothing in showing them to others!"

"Not even if it helps us out with the trial?" Xi smirked.

"Not if it causes more murders to happen!" Marisa yelled at him "It's why I haven't shown my video yet! It might be about you, but I'm not going to show you it and let someone kill you! You might be an asshole but we don't need another class trial!"

"So noble of you" Xi sighed "Sadly if this motive can no longer be used, you know Monokuma is just going to keep making motives! So why not let the motives be the same!" Xi started to laugh a lot"

"Enough!" Nonam said.

"Hmm?" Xi smirked "Speaking again?"

"I have reason to suspect you are guilty. You seemed so adamant on having everyone watch the motive videos! And of setting this trial off the hinges !" Nonam said.

"Le gasp? You mean me?" Xi seemed very offended. But it was fake.

"If I didn't know any better. You are trying to reveal who had Terra's motive video so all blame goes towards THAT person!" Nonam was getting even angrier "So unless you don't shut the hell up and let this trial continue on normally! Then it couldn't be anyone but you!"

Xi remained silent but soon started to laugh "You seem to forget that I honestly don't care about the lives of anyone else. Including myself. And that I'm a psycho!" He started to laugh even more "Buuut, I'll entertain you. Say what you want to say."

Nonam took a deep breath "Back to the cause of death. We can be certain that it was electrocution, at least according to what the Monokuma File marks down on her body."

Larissa took a deep breath "Didn't Arianna take a dive in the water, how didn't she get electrocuted?"

 _I did jump in the water and I'm still alive… because…_

"The power box was turned off…" Arianna said

"But… why would it remain off? Wouldn't the killer benefit to leaving it on? It would have killed anyone that went in the pool…" Larissa said,

Delilah giggled with excitement "I like the way you think girl!"

 _Well yeah, there was a reason._

"To… hide the cause of death…?" Arianna said. "Like Larissa said, if someone had jumped into the water, they would have died, had it still been turned on. Which would make us know electrocution was the cause of death."

"What about the knife?" Gabriel asked.

"Same reason, to lure us into the water to confirm that it was fine" Arianna said.

"So you are telling me the knife was a red herring?" Larissa smiled.

"I… guess? Except it was still part of the murder plan…" Arianna said.

"None of the wounds were fatal, from what I gathered, but… they would have been able to stop movement…" David said. "So… they wanted Terra to be stabbed for a reason…"

 _Yeah… and that reason was…_

Arianna took a deep breath "Like David said… the stabs wounds might of stopped her from being able to move. Terra is strongly willed and probably had enough energy to pull herself out of the water. This is probably why she was stabbed. And this would also be the reason clumps of her hair was discovered in the water. If she was fighting back, she could have showed the killer, who had nothing to hold on but her hair, which got ripped out."

"Yes, that makes a lot of sense… we know a lot more now then what we knew previously…" Nonam said "It's just a matter of finding the killer…"

"The killer, being someone who would have possibly known about the knives…" Xi smirked.

"Not the be a bummer on anyone's parade…" Tristan started to talk. "But what the knife damaged?"

"Just a littl-" Arianna started to think before frowning.

 _Shit!_

"Wouldn't it have vanished…?" Tristan said.

Xi started to laugh "This put suspicion right back to Eliza!"

"Maybe the knife was gotten from somewhere else…" David crossed his arms.

Gabriel took a deep breath "I didn't want to say this earlier, but the knife had to be from the kitchen. One of them was missing… So that means Arianna and David lied…"

David glared at Arianna and mumbled 'Look what you got us into'

Gabriel shook his head "Although I do not believe it to be one of them…"

Xi shrugged "It could still be Eliza"

Eliza whimpered a little "I-I-I could never do it!"

"How could you Eliza!" Delilah gasped. "So is it true that you poisoned that person?"

Arti crossed his arms "That was on Gabriel's motive video…"

"Everyone… enough…" Nonam said "Before we fully decide if it's her or not… we have some more things to go over… like the glue…"

"What about it…?" Xi crossed his arms.

He rolled his eyes "Where could the killer have gotten it? There was none in lab, none in the classrooms. None in the storage room!"

Delilah started to think of something. Then her eyes lit up with a brilliant idea. "Oh Monokuuuuuuma!"

He seemed very disinterested in what she was going to say "What…?"

"Did the building contain any sort of glue before today?" Delilah asked so sweetly. Although there was a wicked grin on her face.

"No! I can't having glue lying aro- DAMMIT! I SAID TO MUCH AGAIN!" He shouted, looking the other way.

Delilah turned to Arianna "Is that enough to form a conclusion…?" She smiled softly "You can avenge Terra…"

 _That… that helps a lot… holy shit… the way the culprit got ahold of glue…_

"The person, could have made it…" Arianna said.

"Making it?" Tristan tilted his head "How do you make glue…?"

"Well there would of been things in the lab" Marisa said.

Arti crossed his arms "Yeah… but not all the chemicals were removed, right?"

Gabriel sighed "The only ones removed were the ones that could be mixed to make the knockout gas and any types of poison…"

"And if I recall, you said that the people who were in charge of deciding which chemicals were to be removed were Jenna, and Nonam…?" Xi smirked.

"I… yes…" He said with a sigh "Which one of you two did it…?"

Both Jenna and Nonam remained silent.

After a while, Jenna finally spoke up "None of that stuff could have been used to make glue. Sorry for the silence, I was going over the chemicals that could have been used to make some… But no combo can be obtained to make some glue…"

Nonam was remaining silent… "Look… I might not be an expert in this. But there could totally have been stuff to make glue there. Sure not everything was there but there was probably something in the kitchen that could have been used. Also where the knife was gotten. Two things in one trip…"

"Are… are you accusing me?" She seemed rather pissed "And to think that I thought highly of you after helping out in the first trial. But seriously, to reach, to reach a conclusion like this. That's just insulting the brains I know very well you have."

"Are… are you resorting to insults…?" Nonam said "I don't know how to make glue at all. But that, that's right up your ally way."

Jenna frowned harshly "Even if I could? What would make me want to…?" She crossed her arms.

David took something out of his pocket and let it fall in front of him "Woops! My bad! Let me just pick that up!" He reached out to grab it and accidentally pressed the play button.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to David Talon. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Jenna Claws! What is with her? She's such a proclaimed scientist! Although I guess she is only to second to someone else! But does that really matter? I heard she is part of a company that makes a lot deadly poisons! She's responsible for at least a 100 deaths in only her first month of working. She doesn't just make them, she delivers them herself to the victim. And by that, I mean KILL!" Monokuma laughed before the video stopped

.

"What's that supposed to prove?" Jenna said.

"Well, you are used to killing…" David said. "And, I might only be a blacksmith, and I could tell there was something else about that video… it was odd to me… but… it said you were second best. Kinda not good for someone with an Ultimate title."

She shook her head "Keep talking, you'll eventually see where you are mistaken…"

"Well, when Terra was in the library with Arianna, me and Chase were fighting. Arianna and Terra were talking…"

.

 _Arianna was looking at the large book Terra had "Not to judge or anything, but you didn't seem like the reading type…"_

" _What? Of course I love reading. Well, I mean. It's one of the rare things I like…" She mumbled_

 _Arianna started to think "Do you like science and literature?"_

" _What? No!" She yelled out "Well, maybe literature! But not the other one!"_

" _Then what were you doing in the lab? I don't know because I wasn't there myself. But I heard you were trying to make something"_

 _She crossed her arms angrily with a faint blush "So what if I enjoy doing stuff like that?"_

.

"So, it seems Terra has a liking for science, although she doesn't seem to like to admit. Although she spent a lot of time in the lab on the third day of being there, all day! So she must really like it…" He continued on.

She shook her head "Well even if that were true, that isn't the video I received… that was the video _you_ received. And it shows the number 2, which means you've watched it twice. The first time, and then right now. Which gives me no chance to have even lay eyes on it."

"You… didn't need to…" Arianna said "Not if you had received Terra's video! So, show me your video!"

Gabriel shook his head "I don't think that's the correct way to procee-"

She sent a glare towards Gabriel "Damn your way of proceeding! That has gotten us nowhere!"

"You want my video…?" Jenna smirked. "Here!" She took out hers and through it at Arianna, although the latter failed to catch it, and it fell to the ground, shattering.

"What the hell was that!" Arianna asked.

Jenna was also furious "I should be the one that is angry! That was my proof of innocence and you let it fall to the ground! Shattering it to pieces!"

David shook his head "You did that on purpose…"

"What do you mean I did that on purpose!" She was getting more angry.

David looked down and then a wicked grin appeared on his face "Yo, Jenna… not everything broke…"

"You mean it still works?" She smiled.

He shook his head "No, we won't be able to watch it… but the number at the bottom says… seven… You apparently watched this seven times…" He laughed.

She shook her head "I only watched it once. The timer is broken"

David grabbed his own and threw it at the ground, it smashed to pieces, but the number 2, remained "Strange, my number remained the same… I have enough of her bullshit! Someone, closing argument!"

Arianna took a deep breath.

 _Here goes nothing…_

.

"Act 1: This all started the day we received the motive videos. Some people were opposed to watching the video. Others, were not. This includes, the culprit. Once they had reached their room, they probably started up their video. But something stirred inside them, was it hatred? Distrust? Or jealousy? We won't know because they also destroyed their video. From watching the video, they watched it six more times. Out of anger, or because they wanted to make sure what they were about to do next had a reason.

.

Act 2: Already deciding on the pool to be the place of the murder. The killer went to a place that they had heard of. It contained some of the belongings of the two previous deaths. What they needed, was Christopher's Monopad. They soon went to the lab to test it out on the boy's changing room. And it worked like a charm.

.

Act 3: The culprit made their way to the lab, probably to make whatever they needed to make the poison of their choice. However, they were stopped short by Gabriel and Nonam. Who were planning on getting rid of everything remotely dangerous. This ruined everything they had planned at that moment for their plan. Their plan to potentially poison Terra. That was, until Gabriel asked for her help, much to Nonam's discontent.

.

Act 4: They were tasked with helping Nonam remove all the dangerous chemicals, but leaving stuff that could be useful. With their vast knowledge of chemicals, and their new murder plan in action, they agreed without any hesitation. Making sure to leave stuff that could be used for something they wanted to make. Glue. But not just any glue, super glue.

.

Act 5: Next, came the time for the ingredients for the glue that weren't in the lab. Specifically, some kitchen ingredients. They made their way to the kitchen and gathered supplies. Before leaving, they thought that it be wise to borrow a knife from the kitchen. They would have used one from the lab, but that would look very suspicious as very few people have actually went there. The culprit was about to leave the kitchen when they spotted something…

.

Act 6: They were the kitchen rules. Upon closer inspection, it stated that no knife could be carried out. The culprit, fearing that there plan was now getting worse and worse, tried to think of a way out. But upon reading the rules more and more. They realized, it said carried out. And since they had already found a loophole in a previous rule. This could probably easily be exploited. Adding the fact that Monokuma probably wants people to use weapons to kill, they tested out their theory. They threw the knife out of the kitchen and ran over to grab it, so no one had time to notice that a knife was thrown. Everything, went along great.

.

Act 7: This time, the culprit thought it wise to wait till night time to start making the glue. So no one could disturb them at all. With all the right materials, they got to work. It probably didn't take long to obtain the results they wanted to obtain. After they were done, they made it back to their room, making sure the knife and glue was with them, the entire time.

.

Act 8: For the final preparations, the killer invited the victim, to the pool. Before she could show up, the killer set up everything. The rope that was going to used to tie Terra up. She placed the glue on the spot where her foot would go. After, they went to the storage place, to hide the knife and see on the inventory one last time. Where the sandbags were probably obtained.

.

Act 9: When Terra finally arrived, the killer probably brought up the reason they wanted to spend time together. They probably found out Terra loved science a lot, a fact, that would soon be the death of her. Terra soon realized she did have someone to talk to and they spent a good amount of time talking. Soon the culprit pointed out the rope, and told her that it was one of those things that lakes sometimes have. She didn't want to go at first but soon agreed.

.

Act 10: Once Terra put her feet on the rope, it was already too late to turn back. She swung while the killer held the rope down, so she didn't fall completely into the water. Because the pipe had nothing stopping it from doing this, the rope slid right along the pipe to the center of the pool. The culprit pulled on the rope and made Terra fall upside down, leaving her suspended in the hair.

.

Act 11: The killer quickly tied up the other part of the rope to a sandbag heavy enough to support Terra's weight. Acting like they didn't know what was happening, they said they were going to go get something in the storage to help. What they got there, were the knife, the raft, and the extra rope. Once out, they realized that Terra wa above the water, not at all what she should be doing. But they planned for this anyways.

.

Act 12: The culprit boarded the raft and made it to the center of the pool. Terra, upon seeing the knife, knew exactly what was happening, and tried to fight back. She shoved over the culprit, who reached out for the nearest thing they could grab. Which just so happened to be Terra's hair. Once they ripped it off and fell onto the raft. They got back to what they were doing. Which was stabbing them furiously. But not enough to kill them. They must have had a lot of knowledge on where to stab to keep them alive.

.

Act 13: After the victim had stopped fighting back, the culprit removed themself from the pool with the raft. They expertely threw the knife at what was holding the lights together. Which was barely anything. The light fell into the water, killing Terra once the water became charged with electricity. Since she had her head under water, she had no chance of survival. Meanwhile, the knife slowly sank under water. Exactly where the killer wanted it to go.

.

Act 14: To avoid getting wet, the culprit tied a rope to the raft and carried it out towards the storage room. Which is what left the only water trail in the room. Once in the storage room, the victim found a way to grab the unwet side and lift it up onto something. They put away the rope and grabbed more sandbags. While they were at it, they turned off the power in hopes of hiding the cause of death. But they couldn't do anything about the light now inside the pool.

.

Act 15: Once they were done in the storage room. They brought out the two sandbags. They untied the rope from the sandbags and attached it to the edge of the pool. They made their way to the girls changing room, making sure they didn't leave a water trail. It shouldn't have been a problem since they made sure not to get wet. They took a quick shower to wash out the blood. After throwing out the girls swimsuit in the trash, they dried off and got into their regular clothes. Once down, they left the room.

.

Act 16: They blocked the girls changing room in hopes of confusing the gender of the culprit. They blocked the door leading to the hallway to create even more confusion. And now, came their next part of their plan. They attached a small sturdy string to the last one and placed it such a way that closing the door would move the sandbag to rest in front of the door leading to the boy's changing room, making this a blocked door mystery. Kinda like a locked door mystery, I guess. They had gotten in using Christopher's Monopad

.

Act 17: And now, it was time for the last part of their plan. To make the guys changing room identical. They took out a boy's swimsuit and wetted it at the sink. After it was wetted enough, they placed that one in the trashcan like the others. Just in case someone searched both of them. With that, they were done, and waited for someone to discover the body.

.

And the only person who could have down that is the Ultimate Scientist! Jenna Claws!"

.

"Anything to say… Jenna…?" Gabriel crossed her arms.

She… smiled "All of that is going on an assumption that I even got a video about her. And since someone couldn't catch it! It's destroyed forever! Not just that, but there are several leaps of judgement"

"Except it's not…" Arianna said. "We tried to destroy them, but they always came back…"

Delilah giggled a little "Oh Monokuuu-" She was then hit in the head by a Monopad, which Chase caught in his hands.

"It still has the number 7 on it…" He said. He then pressed play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This monopad should be directed to Jenna Claws. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Terra Rea! What is with her? She seems like a total bitch! Buuut, I don't really have any dirt on her. So instead I'll make you feel jealous. You know how you were added to Hope's Peak Academy last minute. That was because Terra was supposed to be the original Ultimate Scientist! You were just backup! Nothing else. When she refused, the school got kinda pissy and made her the Ultimate Rebel, forcing her to go to the school. Just now that she is better than you in every regards. Something you have had to deal with for you entire life! Monokuma! Out!" And then the video stopped.

.

Jenna remained silent the entire time, looking away from everyone else.

David now had a smug grin on his face "I think this wraps up this trial…"

"Monokuma…" Nonam said "We are ready to vote…"

"Really?" He perked up "Alright! IIIIIT'S VOTING TIIIME!"

Everyone slowly started to vote on who they think did it.

Suddenly, a screen appeared to show who the guilty party was. The roulette started to go, eventually, all three of them landed on Jenna's face, with the words "Guilty" On top.

"Jenna…" Gabriel crossed his arms.

But still she remained silent.

He was gettting a little more impatient "Jenn-"

"Do you know what it's like to not be the best at something? We are supposed to be the best at what we do. But what's the fucking point when there's an army of people better than you? Yeah, I killed her because she was better I guess! But she took many things away from me, and then what did she do? Throw it all away like it was nothing! What a fucking prick! It's like she didn't even care about being recognized…"

Xi started to laugh "Monokuma, can we just get onto the execution already? She bores me!"

Arianna was glaring at Jenna "Yeah… just take her life away already…"

She crossed her arms "Oh, glare at me all you want. Enjoy my execution all you want. It's not going to bring Terra back" She smirked.

Arianna was just about to lunge at Jenna when a hand stopped her.

Nonam shook his head at her "It's… It's not worth it…"

She took a deep breath and calmed down. "Alright…" She smiled softly. But deep down, she didn't trust Nonam entirely. Something was up with him and he's been acting strange every since the first execution.

Monokuma let out a laugh "IIIIIT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!"

.

Monokuma took out a hammer and hit a big red button that wasn't there before. A small little jingle played as an animation of Monokuma dragging Jenna away played.

She was now alone in a lab room, nothing was going on yet. But slowly and surely, the walls of the room started to fall down towards the outside. Leaving Jenna alone in nothingness. Soon, flasks of chemicals started to shatter all over the floor, melting the floor of the room. The only thing separating her from the abyss below. She started to make her way to a larger part of the floor that was still intact. But, that's not going to do much good. The ground caved in as it was not actually a solid material. Jenna started to fall rapidly, getting closer and closer to the abyss. All around her flasks of various chemicals. Eventually, there were no more flasks remaining. And she thought she was in the clear. Until…

 _Ze-sploooosh!_

What a weird sound for water to make… Except… this wasn't water. Her clothes started to burn up and melt. And once her clothes were gone, her skin was next. Slowly, bit by bit, he skin started to melt off her body. Until her bones started to show. But it didn't stop there. Whatever she was in was so potent that her bones also started to melt. She kept melting until she was a puddle of nothing.

.

Arianna, watched the entire time with hatred in her eyes. She deserved every bit of her execution…

Xi watched with much content "What a way to go" He smiled "The second one was way better than the first one" He smirked.

Tristan frowned at it all and looked at Xi "H-how can you be so happy about this stuff?"

He gave a shrug "I would be lying if I said I wasn't responsible for a few deaths…" He started to walk away "See you tomorrow, in the meantime, I have some business to get to!"

Tristan frowned even more…

"Hey, everything will be alright…" Gabriel said to Tristan. "I'll make sure no one else dies…"

He slowly nodded at Gabriel.

Slowly, the room started to empty. Although Arianna remained in the room.

"Hey…" A voice said, but it wasn't Nonam's "Are you coming?"

Arianna turned towards the source of the voice. It was actually David. "You… why did you go along with my lie?"

He shook his head "Same reason you made the lie in the first place. One, to move the case along and two, I don't think Eliza could have done anything remotely similar to this… But these asshats wouldn't have believed it unless there was other evidence against it. It was mostly to move the trial along." He turned to look at the elevator "Come on, we should head back. The elevator is about to leave…"

Arianna nodded before making her way to the elevator. At this rate, the killing game didn't seem to have any breaks at all. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be stopped. She was going to do everything in her power to make sure it came to a halt.

 _To avenge Terra…_

.

Twelve Students Remaining...


	6. Chapter 3: Memory is Key - Daily Life

" _Don't… don't worry! We are in this together…" The voice said to me. I couldn't quite see the face. But the voice was definitely there._

" _One way or another…" It continued on._

 _I smiled at the voice. It was really reassuring._

 _Suddenly, I felt the figure lean in towards me and I felt them kissing me. Well, I've been wanting this for a while now, so I didn't exactly say no to it…_

.  
.

.

Nonam made his way to the cafeteria like any other morning. Once there, he took his regular seat at one of the tables, after getting food that is.

Everyone else was also eating, but like last time, tension filled the room. No one wanted to talk about the events of yesterday. But, also, just like last time. Someone, specifically Larissa, burst through the doors of the cafeteria "Guuueeessssss what!" She smiled.

"Well, if your annoyance was any factor, I'd say a new floor has opened up" Xi stood up.

She started to pout playfully "Hey…! You didn't have to be so mean!"

Arti slowly stood up, adjusting his katana sheath "Well, I don't know about you guys… but I'm going to check it out."

One by one, everyone slowly got up. Besides Nonam, who seemed to rather finish his meal first.

"What about you Nonam?" Arianna looked at him. She frowned because of how suspicious he's been acting as of late. But there was not much she could do.

.

Oh hey look, new main character for the chapter.

Control as switched over to Arti.

.

Arti and Larissa were walking ahead of the pack as they were already on the second floor. "So, let me guess…" He smirked "The moment you woke up you checked out if another door had appeared?"

Larissa smiled and shook her head "Actually I checked last night. Since Xi had said last time it opened up right after the class trial. It only made sense!"

He rolled his eyes "Then why didn't you tell us last night?"

"Duuuuh! No one was in the mood for anything remotely like exploring… Not after losing two other fellow Ultimates…" She sighed deeply.

Arti slowly nodded "Yeah… you are right"

Soon, they both reached the doors and waited for everyone else to show up. Which, Nonam was a part of the group too. Turns out he didn't want to be left out. So he quickly finished his food to join everyone.

"Is everyone ready?" Larissa said to everyone before opening the doors, which housed more staircase. "To the third floor!"

Everyone started to walk up stairs, and once they reached the top of the stairs, everyone scattered to go explore, leaving Arti and Larissa behind.

"Sooooo!" Larissa said excitedly "What room should we go to first?"

He looked at his options, four of them being non classrooms while the other two were classrooms…

"Well…" Arti started "I'm pretty sure that that room over there is a movie theatre…"

Her eyes light up "Let's go watch a romance!"

"Wait what?" He asked confused.

"Huh… I'm the Ultimate Matchmaker. Of course I'd love romance movies!" She smiled. She grabbed his hand and started dragging the not to eager Arti away.

Once in the movie theatre, it was apparent three other people were there.

"Oooo~" Larissa smiled "I see Arianna and Nonam already have the same idea!"

"Same… idea?" Nonam asked confused.

Arianna shook her head with a blush "We are just seeing if there's anything of value in this room…"

The other person in the room, Marisa, was looking through some of the movie cases "All of these movies, I've never heard of before…" She sighed.

"It's Monokuma, what did you expect?" Nonam crossed his arms.

Larissa frowned a little "So… I'm guessing no romance movies…?"

"Well…" Marisa started to trail off "If you like romance movies about a person and animal, then I guess?"

The room went silent after Marisa said that.

"So, should we burn this now or?"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"NOO!" His angry voice called out.

"When did you get here?" Marisa looked at the bear.

"I'm everywhere… Now! Unhand that masterpiece!" He was getting more angry.

Marisa couldn't help but laugh "Masterpiece? You mean this garbage?" She made sure the movie was out of reach of Monokuma.

"I worked so hard on that! Harder than you ever will! Five minutes!" The bear said.

Marisa gave him a blank stare, before opening the case and breaking the movie in half.

"NOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO!" He started to freak out. "Thank god I have 500 copies!"

Arti, well, slowly dragged Larissa out of the movie theater.

"Wait! Nooooo! There could have been a good movie!" She whined

Arti was now out of the room, and something caught his attention "Oh sweet, an arcade room?" He walked over to it, Larissa, slowly following him.

Three people were in the arcade room. One of the people in there he expected to see. And that was Chase. Although he wasn't actually playing a game. He was watching someone else play games. When Arti went to go check out who it was, it was not at all who he thought it was.

"Eliza?"

Well, she ignored him because she was concentrating on the game.

Arti looked over at Chase "She games?

He simply shrugged. He was way too busy watching her play.

Once she got a game over, she sighed and turned around. "AAA!" She screamed upon seeing that Arti, Chase, and Larissa were watching her. "What are you doing?" She blushed deeply. "It's… it's not nice to stare like that!" She crossed her arms.

"I… huh… are you a gamer?" Chase asked her.

She frowned at Chase, who seemed to have completely ignored what she said "So what…?" She mumbled.

Arti shook his head and looked at Larissa "We should g-"

"Shiiiip!" She said at Chase and Eliza.

Alright, well, now Eliza seemed mad at Larissa now "And you… it's… it's rude to ship people like that!"

Arti grabbed Larissa's arm and started to drag her away. "Let's go…"

"But wait! I need to make it a thing!" She whined again.

Arti was going to leave the room until he spotted someone else in the room.

Gabriel was looking at the machines, but wasn't actually playing.

"Huh… Gabriel?" Arti asked.

"Hmm?" He looked up at Arti "Oh… don't mind me, I'm just checking out the machines. Seeing if any of them are trapped…"

"Are any of them… trapped?" He asked.

Gabriel shook his head "Not from what I can see. They just seem to be for our entertainment…"

Arti slowly nodded, before turning to Larissa "Let's go explore the other rooms…"

They left the room and went over to the training room. As they entered the room. Arti placed his hand on top of Larissa's head and lowered her quickly.

A knife went flying past where her head used to be and hit a target behind them.

"Shit! Can you not walk in front of the target!" David said.

"Didn't know you also used the weapons…" Arti crossed his arms.

He shook his head "I'm a fucking blacksmith. Of course I use weapons. How am I supposed to know if they are a good quality?"

"Fair point"

Larissa stood back up and glared at David "You could have warned us!"

"Coulda, woulda, didn't" David smirked. He threw another knife, going right over her shoulder, but still hitting the target. "Move away from the damn targets!"

Larissa quickly got out of the way while Arti stayed there, since he was already out of the way.

David took several knives and tossed them all. They landed pretty accurately.

Arti shook his head "Are you sure you aren't something else than just a blacksmith?" He crossed his arms.

He shook his own head and went to grab the knives. "Hey! Xi! Any other weapons?"

A voice came from the back of the room "Yeah! There's tons of swords in the back. Arti might take a liking to them" Xi walked out of the storage room and looked at Arti "Speaking of the devil…"

"If they aren't crafted specifically for me, I don't want them…" Arti said. "Although this would make a great training room to practice the sword…"

Larissa started to look worried "Can we go now, there's one more room left to explore!"

He slowly nodded, leaving the room with her.

Xi smiled devilishly "One day, your secret will be out…"

David threw a knife at Xi. But, instead of dodging it like a sane person would. He blocked it with his arm, and proceeded to taste his own blood "Hmm. Taste good!" He smirked again before leaving.

Arti walked over to the final room, which was the woodshop. And well, there were only two people who hadn't been talked to.

Delilah was turning on several of the machines "Ooooo~ Look at all these potential killy things~" She giggled. Grabbing a piece of wood, she tossed it at one of the saws, which shredded it to bits "Quick! Someone get a watermelon! They are the closest to a human head!" She giggled but then stopped "Just kidding. Sorry... " She turned off the machine and spotted Arti and Larissa "I… I just needed to vent out a little bit. The game… hasn't been good on any of our mental state"

Arti shook his head "Yeah… I get that, but I think you mentally scarred Tristan.

Tristan, was rocking back and forth on the ground.

"Oh god no!" She ran over to Tristan "Tristan! Tristan! Are you OK!"

He finally came back to his senses and just looked at Delilah, horrified. "What… what is wrong with you…"

She giggled again "Nothing is wrong with me at all! The game is just slowly turning us like this…"

"I… don't think you should ever come to this room. Ever…" Arti said.

She stood up and stomped over to Arti "And who are YOU to tell me what to do?"

"The guy with the sword on his back…" He crossed his arms.

She looked him up and down "Oh! OK" She giggled before skipping her way out of the room.

Arti shook his head as he also left the room with Larissa. He was about to go downstairs when Larissa stopped him "Hey…"

He stopped and turned towards her "Yeah?"

"Why are there only two classrooms on this floor?" She asked.

He gave a shrug "Why does it really matter?"

"Because…" She looked up at the titles of the classroom "One of is named 3A while the other is named 3C. What ever happened to 3B?"

Arti shook his head "Look, it's probably not important. Let's just head back…"

Larissa frowned before smiling "Alright!" She followed him down the stairs, taking one last look at where Classroom 3B should be.

.

Arti went into his room and slucked down on his bed.

His room, was vastly different from the rooms seen so far. Inside, on the walls, many swords. But none were the same. There was no point in owning two identical blades unless someone was planning a murder. Which he clearly wasn't. He was about to get up and leave his room when he heard a knock on his door. He stood up and slowly made his way to his door. One hand on the handle of the katana, he opened the door.

"Hey Arti…" Larissa smiled.

"Oh…" He removed his hand from his katana handle and opened the door a little more "May I help you?"

"I want… I want you to train me with the way of the sword" She smiled.

"You want me to train you how to use the sword?" Arti asked to make sure.

Larissa slowly nodded "Yes… it would be better if I knew how to defend myself! And… I think you'd make a great teacher…" She smiled.

He started thinking of what to respond with. "Are you sure…?"

She nodded with a smile "Please…?"

Arti took a sigh and opened his door wide. He grabbed one of the swords hanging from the wall, that was in its sheath. "Here"

She caught it after almost failing to do so and looked back at him.

"We are going to the training room" He said, grabbing something besides his katana. He left the room.

Larissa looked at the sword she was given and slowly started following him.

Soon, they reached the third floor and into the training room. He removed the sword from the sheath and got ready. "Look, I don't want to go difficult on you…"

Larissa slowly took the sword out, having a hard time to balance the sword from just the handle.

"Huh… maybe we should learn sword stances…" He said. He walked over to her and started putting her legs in a more balanced position.

Oh, she already knew how to stand while holding a sword. She just wanted Arti to get very close to her. "I- I think I understand" She blushed innocently.

He took a few steps back.

She was having a hard time holding it, but her balance was great.

"Take a few practice swings!" Arti said.

She took a few swings, but they were very weak.

He shook his head. "This might take a while…"

.

After what felt like a good two hours of practicing, Arti finally got Larissa to take a break "That… that should be the basics done…" He sighed "I think that should also be enough for today…?"

Larissa smiled softly before looking down "Could we also train… at night…?"

"At… night?" He looked down at her "That's probably not a good idea…" He sighed.

"Oh…" She frowned "OK!" She handed him back the sword she had borrowed and walked out of the training room.

Arti shook his head. What was Larissa's true intention… he didn't know what they were. But they couldn't be bad… could they?

.

He returned to his room, placing back both swords he had taken out. He needed a small break for the time being, he was just going to have to relax.

.

Soon, some time had passed and he got up from his bed. He looked at all the swords on his wall and took a deep sigh. The thing he was about to do next was probably going to be stupid. He grabbed his keys, and after adjusting his sheath. He walked out of the room, making his way towards someone who would be able to help him.

David was, like he expected, in the training grounds.

"Yo, David…!" Arti said, crossing his arms.

He had just finished throwing knives at a target before turning towards Arti "Yeah?"

"I… have a favor…" He said.

David grabbed the knives from the dummies and put them under a coat he definitely didn't have before. It even matched his shirt. "Aaaand, what's that favor…?"

"Well…" Arti crossed his arms "As the Ultimate Blacksmith-"

"I don't have enough metal to make you a new sword" He frowned.

Arti shook his head "No… it's nothing like that…" He slowly grabbed something out of his pocket. I know this isn't your area of expertise, but…" He tossed it in the air.

David caught it and looked at the thing Arti gave him "Alright, this isn't Kingdom Hearts nor am I a locksmith…" He was holding the key to Arti's room.

"I just want you to make a duplicate one…" Arti crossed his arms.

David shook his head before nodding "Alright… Why, though?"

He closed his eyes and went into deep thought "I was going to give the spare to Larissa. Just so she always had access to my room…" For the swords of course.

"Riiiight, so she pay you midnight visits." David smirked.

Arti shook his head "No…"

David frowned "Alright, I'll make the key. But just so you know, that is a terrible idea. I don't care how nice she is…"

"Just make it already…!" Arti said, heading out. "Give it to me later today if you can…"

David watched him leave and took a deep sigh "This isn't going to end well for him…" He looked at the key Arti gave him.

.

Arti walked into the cafeteria to get some food, but there seemed to be some commotion going on there.

"I said I'm not revealing what it is until everyone is here!" Monokuma called out, but soon saw Arti "Oh! That should be everyone!" He looked angrily at Arti "What took you so long!"

"Huh… I was in my room. I wasn't aware that we had to be here…" He crossed his arms.

"Well none of that matters! IIIIIT'S MOTIVE TIME! NYECK NYECK NYECK!"

Tristan shook his head "We learned about our mistakes and we won't take the motive this time…"

"Oh? Well, I tried! Bye!" Monokuma disappeared.

Before shortly reappearing. "You think I care what you think!" He started to laugh evilly. "This time's motive is all about memory! Something you seem to be missing a part of! Except maybe one of you…" He said off handedly. "Just kidding! I'm pretty sure none of you remember anything! Buuuuut! That can all change! Puhuhuhuhu! One of you lucky people can come see me after I leave and ask me to give you all your memories back. There are no strings attached! You don't even have to murder. Just boom! Memory back. Although you aren't allowed to tell anyone what you remember! Or anyone that hears it will _**DIE**_! And it will be aaaall your fault! Puhuhuhuhu! That's it for me! Goooodbye!" And with that, he was gone.

Arti didn't really care about this whole motive thing and was going to leave until he was stopped by someone.

It was Nonam "This is going to sound stupid… but me and Arianna are going to see what this is about… I'm going to have my memory restored and once I do, you and her will tie me down so I don't try anything stupid after…"

Arti shook his head "And when do you plan on doing this?"

"In a few minutes, when everyone else is gone…" He whispered back.

Arianna was standing behind him, looking at everyone else who was leaving. Soon, they were the only people left in the room.

Nonam slowly nodded "Alright… let's go…"

The trio started walking throughout the hallways.

"So… why do you want them back so badly…" Arti asked.

Nonam took a deep sigh "I don't want anyone killed anymore. So if I can get the memories before anyone else can, and be prevented from doing anything, then no one needs to die…"

Arianna frowned at the thought of it "What could we even remember that would make us want to murder each other…?"

Arti sighed "Probably something awful…" He started thinking "But it could very well be fake memories…"

Nonam sighed "It could…"

Soon, they reached the person they wanted to see…

"Monokuma…" Nonam said.

The bear turned towards the trio "You mean little ol' me?"

"Yes… the memories…" Nonam said coldly.

"Ooooo~ Let me just get my memory stick!" He took out a stick that seemed pretty valuable. He slowed touched it to Nonam's head, the latter, closing his eyes. "You shall… REMEMBER!" And with that, he hit the stick against Nonam's head.

Nonam fell to ground, and when he slowly got up, he didn't feel any different "Nothing… changed…" He said.

"WELL NO DUH!" Monokuma started to laugh "You aren't the first one to come to me! Some other sad sap already got their memories back! HAHAHAHA!"

"What?!" Nonam seemed shocked "But it was announced like 5 minutes ago! Who could have done that!"

Monokuma shrugged "I don't remember. Maybe we should use the stick on me!"

"Dammit…" Nonam bit his thumb. "Who the hell took it…!"

Arti shook his head "Not anyone good…" He sighed "Well it's not any of us…"

"Unless when Monokuma said the motive, someone had already taken it…" Arianna said. "So it could still be one of us…"

Arti frowned "Like I have any use for my memories, I'm too busy making new ones…" He started to walk away.

 _Although having them back would be nice… but not if it is a motive…_

Arti went back to his room and waited. What a day… stuff had happened and he didn't know what to do about it. Twelve people were left, and nine of those people could have gotten their memories back. Including David and Larissa, those two could have taken it. Although highly unlikely… He was about to fall asleep when he heard something falling onto the floor outside his door. He got up and went to it, his hand on his katana once again, opening the door he saw nothing. He was about to close the door until he looked down. Two keys were on the ground. His original key and probably the extra one Larissa made. He smiled and was once again going to close the door until…

Suddenly.

Larissa.

"Arti wait!" She called out, running to her room.

"Hmmm?" He looked at her "Is it time already?"

"Well…" She giggled "You never specified a time! And plus… I don't want to go to bed toooo late!"

He nodded and headed back in to grab the two training swords. He gave her the sword she used earlier while making sure to slip in the key to his room to her "Let's go…"

She noticed the key "Wait! Arti, you gave me-"

Arti kept walking like nothing was happening.

It's when she noticed that he was twirling his own keys on his chain. She smiled upon realizing she was given an extra key to his room.

.

The training went better than the earlier session, as Arti was started to use his sword so Larissa could try and hit him. Of course he easily blocked all of her hits.

"It's always good to keep your opponent on their feet and look for an opening, but don't use too much energy…! Because that could just give the enemy an opening."

The sound of swords clashing against each other was pretty loud and despite being on the third floor. It had attracted two people to show up.

"What's with all the racket" A sleepy Tristan said.

"Arti…" Nonam shook his head "You shouldn't be doing this at night"

Arti lowered his sword "And why's that?"

Larissa saw an opportunity arise and went to strike Arti, who, despite not even looking at her, continued to block every swing she got. Soon, she stopped "Meanie…"

"Please stop…" Tristan yawned "My companions can't sleep…" He removed his hat and revealed a mouse "This one is the leader…"

Said mouse jumped at Arti and started to attack him "OH GODDAMMIT!"

Tristan smiled softly with his head tilted "He's a little angry at the moment. They have sensitive hearing so they kept me up, hearing only you two fighting…"

Nonam walked over to the row of swords and grabbed one "And I heard you all too… so unless you stop doing this at night. I will need to stop you myself."

Arti started to laugh a little bit "What can someone like you do?"

Nonam was holding the sword by the handle tightly. "Try me…"

Arti ran over to Nonam and started to swing his sword at him rapidly, way faster than with Larissa. However, Nonam still managed to block every hit without even facing Arti. This caused Arti to stop "What the fuck…?"

Nonam put the sword back on the rack "So, there's my argument…" He said walking away "You don't want to see me actually try…"

Arti sighed and put the sword in his sheath. "Let's go Larissa"

"Dammit…" She frowned "Well! I will make sure you are up bright and early!"

Arti smiled at her and grabbed the sword she was holding. He also grabbed the mouse that had attacked him and threw it back at Tristan.

Tristan caught it and frowned at Arti "He's precious! Don't hurt him!"

Arti shook his head "Pathetic…"

.

Arti had gone to his room and falling asleep.

.

He woke up feeling a very heavy load on his chest.

 _Shit… don't tell me I'm sick!_ _Oh what the fuck_

"Larissa" Arti said.

"Get up!" She said, pretty much on his bed, almost on top of him "We have some more training to do!"

Arti tried to get up but, her being almost on him made it hard "I would get up if you got off me…" He sighed.

She blushed hard and quickly got off the bed "S-sorry! Anyways! We have to catch up to the training we missed yesterday!"

Arti slowly got off his bed "When I gave you my key… it was for emergencies… not for you to sneak into my room and get a peak…" He did feel a little lightheaded.

Larissa blushed angrily "Get your head out of the gutter!"

"Can… I at least eat before we do that…?" He sighed.

"You can e-" She started to say.

He was already out of the room "Actual food!" He shouted back.

"But… that's what I was going to… HEY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" She ran after him.

Arti had arrived at the cafeteria where everyone was already there. Gabriel speaking to everyone "Look, one of us apparently took our memories back… I just want to know who did it!"

"I find it better if whoever did doesn't reveal themselves." Xi crossed his arms.

Tristan shook his head "We don't know what they could be remembering… And what they could be thinking…"

"Not to mention…" Marisa added "For it to be a motive, it means whoever took it must already be plotting a murder…" She took a deep breath.

The psycho shrugged "That may be true, but cornering them for info isn't going to do us any good. Because one that person reveals it's them who has their memory back. Someone else could commit a murder and pin the blame on someone else. 'Twould be what I would do"

"I REMEMBERED!" Delilah shouted out.

The entire room went silent.

"Oh, not the memory thing, just what I add for breakfast three days ago…" She giggled.

"Please refrain from saying stuff like that…" Gabriel shook his head.

"Don't tell me how to live my life!" Delilah shot back, before adding something under breath "Bitch…"

"So all we know so far is that Arianna, Arti, and Nonam all went to go see Monokuma. Nonam said he would get the memories back, but to immediately tie him up after… But apparently they were too late and someone took the memories…"

"Not to sound like I suspect him or anything…" Marisa said "But why did Nonam want his memories back?"

He took a deep sigh "No one else would volunteer to be tied up after that to refrain from there being any more murders. As indicated by whoever took the memories before me."

Arianna stepped into the conversation "Look, we tried what we could and it didn't work. Which means someone here REALLY wanted those memories to have gone in less than five minutes…"

"There's no dangers in revealing yourself… but there is dangers in not revealing yourself for sure…" Gabriel said "We don't wish to harm you. We just want to make sure no one else here dies"

"Bah! You are all so pathetic!" Xi said "It was I! I wanted to see what was so worth remembering. Not like I would kill anyone anytime soon anyways. I want to see others die in front of me. All without having to lift a single finger. It's so fascinating, really. Four people have already died. Such a tragedy" He started to fake cry "But let me tell you, me saying that won't stop someone from dying. It may even be me! I know how to persuade someone to kill others… I was the Ultimate Psychologist after all." He started to laugh as he left the room.

Arti sat down with a big sigh. "I hate this fucking place…"

.

Later, Arti and Larissa meet up in their regular place to do some training. Despite only a short amount of time, she was already getting pretty good. Maybe she was a natural… or he was a good teacher. No, she was definitely a natural. He had never teached anyone before so it wouldn't make sense.

Arti soon put his sword down "Let's take a break for now…" He started to lean against the wall, looking at all the swords in the room.

"Okay~~" Larissa smiled at him, putting the sword she had back in the sheath. She took a few steps towards Arti before stopping, less than a foot away from him. She smiled very softly at him.

"May I help you?" He seemed somewhat annoyed

She smiled even brighter "You have already helped me out so much!" She got a little closer and started to lean in.

Arti, sadly, looked the other way "Larissa… please don't…" He was blushing

She stopped moving towards him and frowned "Why not…?"  
He sighed a little "Just… now isn't the time for any of this… Alright?"

"But… you make me… happy…" She said to him.

Arti took a deep breath "You do too… just… I have to go…" He left the room without saying anything else to Larissa.

"Arti…" She said sadly before removing the sword on her sheath and looking at it.

Arti went down to the second floor and made his way to the computer lab. No one should be there so it should be silent. Well once walking into the room, he sees that he has mistaken. Marisa and Tristan were there. He was going to leave but leaving would do no good and would probably be pretty rude. He walked over to an empty computer as far away from them as possible and started fake typing.

 _Does Larissa really like me… and why did I turn her down… I like her too… Maybe if we weren't stuck in this game I would have went right for it…_

Suddenly, Arti got absorbed into deep thought.

Hey yo reader. You are Marisa now.

"And this… well, it's called a mouse but of course it isn't" She told Tristan, she was telling him how to use technology.

"I'm sorry I'm asking you to do this" He smiled "But I don't really use technology from where I'm from"

 _Oooo~ He's telling me some backstory of his_

"Where are you from?" She smiled at him.

Tristan started to think deeply. It's not that he didn't know the answer. He just wanted to think of an approach "Let's just say I don't live in the city"

"Oh! Do you live out in the country?" She seemed really interested with what he had to say.

He took a sigh "Not exactly… I live in the forest. No power ever goes there"

 _The forest?_

"Is… that why you are so close to animals?" She smiled.

"Pretty much…" He blushed slightly.

 _Well, huh… I don't know how to respond to that…. Shit…_

"Anyways!" She said "Let's get back to the computer" She smiled.

She spent a good amount of time showing him out to use the computer. But it was having a hard time sticking with it.

Getting tired, she decided to just talk with him "So, did you go to school at all?"

Tristan gave an unsure nod "Well, there's a lot of days I didn't show up because I had animals to tend to. I guess that might be why I got scouted here in the first place!" He seemed pretty happy. "And luckily, at school, they allowed me to bring a pet to school." He removed his hat to reveal the mouse he was seen with several times "So I have this little guy with me at all. I always have him on me. I don't leave without him!"

She giggled a little. "Even when you shower?" She meant this as a joke.

"I mean I guess?" Tristan said.

Her expression went blank as she now had the mental image of Tristan in the shower washing the mouse. She blushed brightly.

 _Shit! Why did I have to think of, of THAT!_

Tristan tilted his head "Are you OK? You seem to be getting a fever" He put his hand on her cheek to check her temperature "Wow, your cheeks are hot.

This, as one might expect, did not help. "No! I'm fine!" She removed his hands from her cheeks. "Please, don't do that again…" She was still blushing.

"Alright!" He said with that stupid smile of his.

 _That stupid adorable smi- HEY! Stay focused!_

Tristan tilted his head "Are you sure you are OK?"

"What! Why do you ask?" Marisa said, going on the defence.

"Your face is red. I don't know much about human health. But an animal with a red face is NOT a good sign. Maybe there's an doctor's office we can…" He started to think "Or maybe there's one on the fourth floor…" Upon realizing what he said he frowned "Hopefully we never have access to the fourth floor. Because that would mean another one of our friends have died…"

Marisa frowned too "It's OK… I…" She now had a smile "I believe that no one else will die. Gabriel and the others will make sure of it!"

Tristan returned the smile "I believe so too!" He looked back at the computer "This is a lost cause on me" He laughed a little "It's getting pretty late. Let's go get some food" He got up and left the room.

Marisa slowly got up and looked over at Arti, who had unintentionally listened into their conversation. She looked at him for a few seconds before leaving the room, following Tristan.

Arti took a sigh and figured he should probably sort things out with Larissa. He made his way back up to the third floor and into the training room. Although she wasn't there and two things caught his eyes. The sword she had been using was there, including the key to his room.

 _Shit! Why leave those two things there!_

He looked around the room and remembered that this was pretty much a room with weapons.

 _Shit! Why leave my keys there!_

Yeah, that's better.

He sat down on the floor and sighed. He stayed there for what felt like a good several hours.

 _Great… she was probably really mad at me and is probably going to avoid me now… But… I couldn't start something up in here. I couldn't let her bare the pain of losing me… It was… for her own good. But… I can't that be the last thing we talked about…_

Arti slowly stood up and looked at the door

 _I'm going to go to her room…_

He was going to open the door when it opened itself on its own. "Huh?"

"What did I say about training at n-" Nonam started to say until he looked in and realized he was the only one there. "Wait… where's Larissa?"

Arti crossed his arms "Probably back in her room…"

"Then… what was that…" Nonam started to say. "Wait, do you hear that…?"

Arti closed his eyes and started to listen.

 _It sounds like… a faint buzzing noise… like… wait a second…_

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking" Arti said.

"Yeah! The woodshop!" Nonam bolted out of the training room and ran over towards that room.

Arti followed close behind him and ran over to the room. They both stood in front of the door of the woodshop. The sound, surely coming from there.

"Who would use this place at night…" Arti said. He quickly kicked the door open.

.

.

.

The scene grew blurry, multiple saws were turned on, all of them buzzing away seemingly at something. One of them in the corner of the room, near the entrance, was running, and was also covered in blood. But nothing was around the immediate area to indicate what could have caused it. Another one had not blood, but a similar red substance with green everywhere. But the thing that jumps to the eye is the thing in the back. The body… The head was right where the saw was. Cutting away at the victim's face, there was no much blood covering their face that the person wasn't recognizable by the face. It was too mangled to even notice who it was. But the clothes, they were noticeably one person's alone. They were very nice clothes, ruined completely by the blood. Out of all the people here, this person seemed the most immune to being killed. It was Ultimate Politician, Gabriel Peterson.

.

 _What the hell! Fucking Gabriel! No one even hated the guy! Everyone looked up to him! And someone took away his life…?_

.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

.

A screen lit up with the face of Monokuma "A body as been discovered in the woodshop! Who could have possibly have died this time? Maybe it's a close friend!" After laughing some more, the screen shut off.

.

"Well would you look at that" Delilah was standing behind them holding two watermelons. No. I mean actual watermelons. "Looks like someone died again" She giggled a little. "This should be veeery fun…" She tossed one of the watermelons into the saw, making it splatter everywhere. Covering both Arti and Nonam in watermelon juices.

Delilah crossed her arms with a smirk "Let's do this!"

.

Eleven Students Remaining...


	7. Chapter 3: Memory is Key - Deadly Life

"Delilah! What the fuck!" Arti said

She tilted her head playfully "Yeees?"

"What are you doing here with watermelons?" Arti crossed his arms.

She looked down at her chest "Well, puberty was really ki-"

"I mean the fucking fruit!" He was seemingly getting more annoyed.

"Oh? Yeah! I heard they were just like human skulls in how though they were. So I wanted to throw them at an active saw!" She giggled. "And pretend the juice was blood!"

Both boys remained silent for a bit.

She had a confused look on her face "What? It's not my fault it turns me-"

Arti had got completely away from her, walking over to Gabriel's body.

Suddenly.

Bear.

Monokuma was sitting on top of the saw table, very near to the saw. "Oh poor Gabriel! He had so much to live for! Puhuhuhuhu!" He laughed at the despair that filled the room.

"Shut up asshole and give me the Monokuma file!" Arti crossed his arms.

"So rude…" Monokuma sighed "Alright! Here you go!" He handed Arti over the Monokuma File.

.

 **Monokuma File #3**

.

 **The victim is none other than the Ultimate Politician, Gabriel Peterson. He was found dead in the woodshop after falling onto the running blades of a saw. He died the moment his brain turned to mush. The time of death is approximately one hour before the body was first discovered.**

.

 **He suffered cave in, located at the head. And maybe an injury somewhere else.**

.

Arti sighed and put the file away. This one is going to be tough… but it must all link back to the motive…

"AAAAAAAA-" A scream came reasoning down into the place.

"Jesus Christ…" Arti turned to see that Eliza had made it to the scene of the crime. Tears streaming down her eyes. This was indeed a very brutal scene.

Delilah had covered her ears, and when Eliza finally stopped screaming, marched over to Eliza "Don't! Ever! Do that again!" She said angrily.

"S-sorry…" She mumbled

"You'll disturb the sleeping body" She giggled.

"I- What?" Eliza asked. Now she was just confused.

"Let Gabriel sleep in peace" She crossed her arms. And just as suddenly as she appeared earlier, Delilah was gone.

"What's… What's with her…?" Eliza asked.

Arti shook his head "Isn't that what we'd like to know…"

Nonam looked at Eliza and realized she was the only person to show up after the announcement. "Hey, where's everybody else?"

"Hmm… probably still climbing the stairs…" She said. "I was at the arcade so I was right nearby…"

"Why were you there so late at night?" Arti asked.

Eliza huffed "Because Chase as been following me a lot. So I remained in my room most of the day.

"I mean, I guess I understand…" Arti sighed.

Nonam thought for a bit. "I need to go somewhere, this is part of the investigation. So, I will tell you what I find. Or I'll tell Arianna. Whoever I find first…" And with that, Nonam left.

Arti took a deep sigh and walked over to the table saw.

 _Time to actually do an investigation…_

He took a look at the saw and realized that it was still running. That and all the ones around it were still running.

 _Weird… why leave them running. Did the killer have to make a hasty retreat?_

He took note of the injuries that Gabriel had. Well the one on his face were… well… apparent.

But there was an injury on him that seemed out of place.

 _Why was his knuckles bloody, and why was it the only part of the hand… How did he injure himself like that._

"Find anything of interest?" A voice said from the door.

It was Xi.

Arti shook his head "What do you want?"

He took a few steps towards him "I just want to help with the investigation. And maybe give out my testimony. On why I couldn't have done it."

"Well that only makes your more suspicious" He crossed his arms.

"I've already gathered that it might. But it also makes you mighty suspicious that you seemed to be one of the first to discover the body. The body announcement is weird in it's regards. It never does specify a killer can't rediscover a body…" Xi continued on.

"You mean it's quite possible that the murderer rediscovered the body?" Arti said.

"No, it's not that I'm saying that. But there's a 3/11 chance that they could" Xi smirked. "Anyways, enough about that… Time for my Alibi. I was helping Tristan find his blasted pet rat. I made the mistake of asking what was wrong and he said he lost it"

"I'm pretty sure it was a mouse…" Marisa was at the door. "Calling it a rat is insulting!"

"Oh, looks like miss Campbell as decided to join the fray…" Xi sighed. "Well, I have better things to do then to remain here… You might want to check Gabriel's feet, however…" And with that, he walked away.

Marisa was seemingly angry "I don't know why I can't just bring myself to show everyone his motive video…"

Arti shook his head "Showing everyone his video won't help in any way and might just make him crazier. Remember, he wants you to show him the video…"

She crossed her arms and sighed "I guess you are right…"

He walked over to Gabriel's feet "Are you going to help with the investigation or something…?"

She started to walk around the room, finding anything that could be of use.

Xi's intel was right and he did find something with his feet. His shoes were tied together. Which seemed weird. If this is involved with the murder case. Then how did they end up like this?"

"What's with all this other red stuff here…?" Marisa asked.

Arti took a few steps towards it and looked at it. It was indeed very red. "This can't also be blood…" He started to think.

Marisa shook her head "Well, whatever it is. It must be important…"

He nodded and walked to the third and final table saw. Just to even more blood on that one. "What's with all the blood here?"

Marisa had followed him and shrugged "Beats me, but it could be the killer used more than one saw…"

"Yeah…" He noticed a poster on the wall and approached it.

 _Great… more rules…_

.

 **Woodshop Rules:**

.

 **Please take full care of equipment.**

 **If you turn on a machine, please be courteous to turn it off.**

 **The tools should never under any circumstances. They have no use outside this room!**

 **Build to your heart's content!**

.

 _There always has to be rules, eh? That means we gotta discover a loophole again… or something like that..._

He looked around the room to find anything else that could be of use. But all he found was seemingly tools, but none of them looked like they had been used recently. But oh well, might as well mark it down. "You think you can continue investigating this room while I go check elsewhere…?"

Marisa smiled softly "As you wish!"

Arti left the room but soon discovered something. A trail of blood, leading… somewhere. He started to follow it, however it reached a wall and simply… stopped. "Huh…? Why does it… just… stop?"

"You noticed that too…?" David was sticking his head out of the training room.

"Yeah…" He looked up towards David "What are you doing in the training room?"

He shrugged a little bit "Well, this is pretty close to the woodshop. I was just wanting to see if anything went missing… but everything seems to be there."

"You want me to check too?" Arti said.

David shook his head "You don't need to, although make sure you don't leave your keys lying around. You don't want someone to steal them…" With that, David left.

Arti walked into the training room and took the sight around him. Yeah, nothing had changed. But that makes sense, he was in there for a good several hours. He grabbed the sword that Larissa had left as well as his extra key. He slowly took it and sighed. Why did it have to happen like that.

Gabriel… Gabriel's room. It was probably wise to go check there soon. He headed for the stairs and started to go down them. He soon ran into Arianna who was going upstairs in a hurry "Where are you going?" He asked.

"To meet up with you…" She sighed "Nonam said that he searched most of the rooms and found nothing odd. But there was a random blood trail on the second floor… Leading to the pool."

"That's… strange…" Arti said. "Did you see the body yet?"

She shook her head "I've seen enough bodies in my lifetime…"

"Alright… do you even know who died…?" He asked.

"Don't worry, Nonam filled me in…" And with that she was gone.

He sighed again and started to walk down the stairs.

He was on his way to Gabriel's room when he ran into Tristan, who was staring at a door.

"Huh… what are you doing Tristan?" He asked.

Tristan looked over at Arti and tilted his head "This room is weird…"

"Weird? In which way?" Arti asked.

"It wasn't always here…" He said. "And I checked inside… and…"

Arti shook his head "It can't be that weird!" He stepped inside. But he was met with a weird feeling… what was this…?

 _This room… what was it doing here?_

The room in question, shouldn't have been there. Arti found himself in a room… the specific room was…

.

.

.

The library.

.

.

.

"What! I thought I was on the first floor!" Arti shouted out.

"We… we are…" Tristan started to think "None of this makes much sense, honestly… But wasn't there also a library on the first floor when we first got here? Whatever happened to that?" Tristan said.

"None… none of this makes sense" Arti started to think. "You know what, we will bring it up at the trial… Did you hear the saw noises from your room?"

Tristan thought for a moment. "No… I… I didn't hear anything actually… Strange, I have almost perfect hearing. I got it from being so close with animals!" He smiled, but it soon turned to frown. "Well, I better get going. There's probably other places I need to check…" Tristan departed from his location, leaving Arti, once again alone. He let out a sigh and made his way towards Gabriel's room. Which was actually open at the time. He cautiously stepped in and found someone in there.

"I see you've come to do the same thing…" Nonam said. Beside him was Chase.

"Yeah… I did…" Arti mumbled to himself. "Find anything of interest?

Chase pointed to the table "See for yourself…"

Arti walked over to the table and found three notes. The first one read:

.

 **Hey, _. I desperately need to talk about something… It's about the motive of this time, I'll be honest, I took the motive and I need to discuss something with you. I know this sounds bad coming from me, since you don't know to trust me or not… But can you really afford NOT to trust me?**

.

 _Why was the name scratched off._

He put down that one and picked up the second one.

.

 **I'll gladly make a meeting with you. But I find it better suited for me if we meet on the third floor at about 9pm sharp. That way most people will be heading to bed and we don't run the risk of being interrupted. And not just that, but would the woodshop be OK?**

.

This… this had to be Gabriel who wrote this… or was it really… It could be either at this point… And finally, onto the final one…

.

 **I mean we can go there, although it doesn't seem well suited for either of us, honestly… But then again, with Arti and Larissa training in the training room around that time and with Eliza in the arcade. And Marisa probably shuffling through the movies of the Movie Theatre. This might be the best place to meet up. Just know I don't aim to hurt you. I aim to find out the truth. Something that has been bothering me since we got the last motive. And this motive puts more evidence onto it…**

.

 _Three strange notes. The first and third definitely the same person, as the second is a reply to the first, and the third a reply to the second…_

.

"This… is intriguing…" Arti said "He looked up at Chase and Nonam "Is that all that was in this room?"

Chase shrugged "That's all we found… besides his Motive Video… but everyone saw it at the cafeteria the other day. So there's not much worth watching it…"

Arti stole a glance over at the Monopad and noticed the number 3 at the bottom right corner. "Hmm…" He started to walk towards the exit "I have to go somewhere now…" He headed out of the room and over to his own room. He placed the sword he had lent to Larissa back on the wall and walked out of his room, closing the door. Next stop… **her**. He walked over to her door and knocked.

"Yes…" A sad voice came from inside.

"Larissa… it's me…" Arti said.

There was silence and shuffling, before the door opened, and she had her usual smile on her face. "Hi Arti!" She smiled brightly "Come in!" She grabbed his hand and carried him into her room. Her room was pretty special too, with pictures of random couples that she probably help make into perfect pairs.

"Look… I'm sorry about today…" Arti started to say.

"Today?" She seemed confused. "What happened today?" She smiled innocently.

He sighed "Please… don't make this harder than it has to…"

"What am I doing to make this harder?" She asked innocently once again "I honestly have no idea what you are talking about!" She giggled. "Is it because I left training early and hauled up myself in my room?" She asked.

"Larissa! This isn't you! I know damn well you didn't forget what happened!" He was started to get a little forceful.

"No seriously… what happened…?"

Did… did she truly not remember…? I… did I hurt her that bad…?

"I…" He stood up. "I should go…" He started to leave, only stopping to turn back towards her, dropping something, and leaving.

She frowned when she left and curled herself into a ball, crying.

She remembered… how could she ever forget?

.

Arti was on his way back to the woodshop when suddenly…

C-C-C-C-CRAAAAAAAAAASH!

Wait what! What was that? That sounded like it came from… THE KITCHEN!

Arti ran full sprint there.

Who would even be in the kitchen at a time like this? Jesus Christ, who's hungry right after a murder!

Arti rushed over the kitchen door, making sure the vault over the counter that separated the kitchen door from the cafeteria. He took a deep breath and sighed. Slowly opening the door.

.

One the floor, lay several smashed watermelons, all splattered, with knives sticking out of the them, like they were human heads. Further along, real blood remain leaks down from somewhere. Broken bits of shelves were scattered across the floor, including some knives. A person had a knife stabbed into their body. Several for that matter. One in both arms, and one on their left shoulder. They seemed lifeless. And, the person under all of those watermelons and knifes, was none other than… The Ultimate Pilot, Delilah L-

.

"I'm not dead asshole!" She called out trying to get out from under the watermelons.

"What… the fuck…" Was all Arti could say.

Soon, she managed to get herself free, removing the knives from both of her arms and the one that landed her shoulder "Well that should leave a mark!" She giggled "Sorry for scaring you Arti boo!" She winked at him. "I just couldn't help it! When I noticed how the watermelons were bigger than mine, I just had to stab them several times!" She said that like it was natural.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Arti called out.

"This game! Silly!" She laughed even more. "But I guess the shelf broke and dropped a bunch of watermelons on me, including the knives…"

He sighed deeply "What were watermelons doing up on the shelf anyways…?"

She just shrugged "It seemed like a good idea at the time…"

"WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET THAT MANY WATERMELONS?" He seemed very confused.

"Well, you remember that Jimmy guy from the math problems who supposedly bought the 30 watermelons…?"

"..."

"Well I fucked him and stole his watermelons." She giggled.

"That… that just leaves me with more questions…" He sighed.

She thought for a slight moment "Well that's not important right now…" She smiled and headed for the exit.

"Wait! When did _you_ discover the body?" Arti asked her.

She turned back and winked at him "Wouldn't you like to know?" And with that. Gone

 _Dammit! She isn't making sense! And I'm running out of time! I need to get back to the woodshop! Maybe Marisa found something else?_

Arti ran out of the room and eventually made it to the third floor. Once he was in there. He saw her at the table that contained some blood. "Find anything interesting?"

She was in deep thought, but soon turned towards Arti "Yeah… I found some blood covered white material… I just… don't know what it is…"

Arti took it from her hands and started to think "I can't really tell. But we might be able to figure out during the trial.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

.

The screen in the room lit up to reveal the face of Monokuma "Hello everyone! It would seem that the time to investigate is over! Please gather by the elevator so we can start the third class trial!" Soon, the screen turned off.

Arti sighed and glanced over at Marisa "Alright… Let's go…"

The two of them left the room and went to the elevator. Everyone else was already waiting there.

"So…" Nonam sighed "It's happened again.

"Yeah…" Marisa said sadly.

Arti clenched his fist and waited for the elevator to arrive.

 _Why… why did we always fall into Monokuma's trap?_

Larissa looked over at Arti "Don't worry about this…" She mumbled "We'll figure out who did this…"

He smiled at her, just as the elevator arrived for them to enter.

One by one, they all stepped into the elevator as it slowly descended towards it's depths. Towards Hell. Not like they left it anyways. The air was tense, only eleven people remained, and one of them was the killer. The elevator ride continued on for what felt like several minutes, even hours. But, in reality, it had only been a few seconds. And soon, those seconds would come to an end.

The ride came to a halt and the door opened.

Everyone stepped out and looked at the courtroom.

Although five of the places had images. One for Catrina, with two musical notes crossed against each other. One for Christopher with an X across it. One for Terra with an skull covering. One of Jenna with an x on her face. And one with Gabriel with a x on his face.

 _Everyone… slowly walked over to the podiums, as did I. The mood was definitely tense…_

When everyone settled it, it was finally time to start

 _Gabriel… the person here who took up the role of leadership..._

Several pictures appeared.

One of Arti reaching for his Katana in his sheath

One of Eliza wearing a chef hat too big for her.

One of Terra, with her arms crossed, looking the other way. The picture was red out

One of David playing around with a knife.

One of Jenna adjusting her glasses, clearly flipping someone off. The picture was redded out.

 _He tried to guide us through this stupid killing game..._

One of Arianna rolling her eyes.

One of Marisa writing things down in a notebook.

One of Tristan holding a mouse in his hands.

One of Catrina listening to headphones. The picture was redded out.

One of Chase with his hands behind his back, acting chill.

One of Christopher looking worried. The picture was redded out.

 _For someone to kill him…_

One of Larissa holding her hands together.

One of Xi looking like pure malice with his crazy eyes.

One of Delilah with an adorable face, trying to be seductive.

One of Gabriel, covering his mouth, in deep thought. The picture was redded out.

One of Nonam, right in the middle, looking confident.

 _That person doesn't deserve to be here!_

.

.

.

Class Trial

In Session

.

.

.

"So, let's talk about the most obvious thing for now" Nonam started up "This appears to be the easiest we've had with figuring out the cause of death AND the murder weapon. We cannot dispute the fact that the table saw was used for it."

"Indeed I say" Xi said "Although what really intrigues me is that more than one saw actually had blood on them. But it doesn't seem like we'll be able to solve that now. So we should continue on elsewhere"

"I know a peeeerfect place to start with" Delilah chimed in. "Alibis!"

"Yes, alibis would be a perfect place to start off" Nonam said "Although I'm not sure if anyone actually had any solid alibis"

"Actually, I don't think that's true…" Arti said.

 _Yes, two people had an alibi._

"Xi, you said you were helping Tristan find his rat right?" Arti said.

"Actually, it was a mou-" Tristan was going to say but he was cut off.

"Yes, although we never did find it. What a shame, maybe Monokuma ate him?" Xi smirked.

"HEY!" Monokuma yelled out "I wouldn't dare eat food like that!" He then took out a rat and ate it "OK, maybe I would!"

Tristan's face, was, well, rather shocked "Don't tell me you ate Mycen!"

"Mycen?" Xi smirked "What a stupid name"

"Xi?" Tristan crossed his arms "What a stupid name…"

"Touche" Xi said.

"Well, this won't help the case in any way" Chase said. "Well, why did the killer and Gabriel even meet up in the Woodshop? It seemed very unlikely for them both to be there… so what gives?"

.

"Well…" David crossed his arms "It probably just happened by coincidence…"

"No…" Chase started to think "There had to be another reason…"

Marisa jumped into the conversation "What if they had a way of communication?"

"Well, they couldn't have met up in person to plan this, could they?" Tristan said.

.

"Yeah, they had sent notes to each other…" Arti said.

"Notes?" Tristan tilted his head "Like letters?"

"Yeah…" Arti said "We found three notes in Gabriel's room… Three of them to be precise. We don't know who wrote what. But apparently the person who set up the meeting place did not have their memories back. Which actually seems rather odd…"

"How so?" Chase asked.

"Hmm…" Arti started to think.

"We should move on to other things at the moment…" David said. "Why was Gabriel's shoes tied up?"

"Huh…?" Arti said.

"You know what I'm talking about… We found him with his shoes tied up together. Which doesn't that seem weird?"

"Yes… it did seem odd" Xi said.

 _There could have been a reason why his shoes were tied together…_

"To probably get him to trip…" Arti said.

"Trip?" Chase said "It seems plausible… but, why not just shove them over…"

"That does seem like a better solution…" Xi said.

"Is it just me… or…" Nonam said.

"What's wrong?" Arianna asked.

"The… Monokuma File feels, like it's leaving something out…" He said.

 _Oh… I didn't seem to notice, but I guess something was left out…_

"The part about other injuries… right…?" Arti said.

"Exactly… and where do you think that injury was…?" Nonam crossed his arms.

 _Well, from what I saw, he definitely had an injury *there*_

"His… knuckles…" Arti said.

"Why would he get injured on his knuckles…?" Marisa started to think.

"Well, there's no way to come to a decisive conclusion right now…" Nonam said.

"Then shouldn't we just forget about this point…" Chase crossed his arms.

Larissa took a deep sigh "There's… just not much to off of…"

"First" Tristan started to say. "Let's talk about that odd thing I showed Arti…"

"Odd thing?" David looked at them both "What did you two discover…?"

"We discovered…" Arti started to think. "The library, but it was on the first floor…"

"Wait what!" Chase shouted out "What the hell is the library doing on the first floor!"

Arianna hummed like she was in deep thought "Actually, now that I think about it, the library was previously on the first floor. The day we all met for the first time! Me and Nonam stumbled upon it. How did we forget about it…"

"Yeah, Christopher and Terra were also there, but they are no are longer here to confirm our claim."

The whole room turned into a dead silence…

"Let's… let's keep going" Arti said. "Not only was the library on the first floor, but where the library should have been, there was… a trail of blood…"

"Blood? Why would there even be blood there in the first place!" Chase shouted out.

"I don't know, but it would have to do with the mystery of the library…" Arti said. "There was a second trail of blood… on the third floor. In between Classroom 3A and 3C"

"What… what happened to Classroom 3B" Eliza pointed out.

"That's… probably where the mystery lies…" Nonam said.

Xi smirked "Doesn't it seem obvious that it would be part of the mystery? It seems obvious to me…"

 _Why… why does the blood on the third floor suddenly disappear…?_

"It couldn't operate… like a elevator, could it?" Arti said.

"I think it operates exactly like that!" Xi smirked.

"W-w-wait! How would they work the elevator… there was no buttons to activate it from the outside… How would you call it to the floor you want." Eliza mumbled.

"You don't…" Nonam crossed his arms.

Chase shook his head "What do you mean you don't!"

"I'm saying, the elevator can only be entered on the floor it was last sent to, to add to the mystery…" Nonam said.

"So, we can assume that books were used to move the elevator…?" Arianna said.

"The books…?" Chase started to think.

"Yes. Certain books must be used to get to certain floors…" Arti said. "Which would explain how they probably got to all three floors without leaving any evidence out."

"That seems kinda stupid!" David said "Not the elevator, but you said the killer used the library? Well where's the blood in the library?"

"Wait what…" Arti said.

"There should have been blood in that library!" David said.

"There wasn't any blood because!" Arti started "The material on the library floor, was already a blood red colour! It is an library that would be found in a mansion, so it makes sense that the floor has a red velvet colour to it. Which would most likely be able to hide the blood if you only looked for an instance. And I only had a quick glance!"

"I guess you're right…" David sighed.

"So it's no doubt…" Tristan said "That the killer used the library as an elevator?"

"Yes, that would also mean, that they went to every floor with it…" Nonam said.

"Because the blood on the second and third floor, as well as the library being found on the first floor." Arti said.

"Exactly…" Nonam said.

"Hey…" Chase said. "Who actually wrote the letters. Like we can assume Gabriel wrote one or two. And the killer wrote one or two…"

"Well, all we have to go based off is apparently the person who remembered…" David said.

"Yeah… the person who remembered is the one who wanted the meeting…" Larissa said,

"Although, the person who didn't remember, also is the one that chose the meeting place…" Tristan pointed out.

"That would mean, that Gabriel had to had remembered…" Arti said. "That's why the killer suggested the woodshop, and attempted to kill him. Probably to hide something."

"Such simple minded thoughts, Arti. Obviously the killer remembered. Not Gabriel" Xi said.

Delilah giggled a little "I agree with that! There's no way Gabriel would have gotten the memories back!"

"No… all evidence points towards Gabriel being the one to get his memory back!" Arianna said.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Monokuma called out. "Are you guys all _split_?"

"I-I guess…?" Tristan tilted his head.

"PEEEEEEERFECT!" Monokuma shouted out. "I've been _waaaiting_ for this! Ladies, Gentleman! And probably a killer. I'm proud to present the first ever morphenomenal trial grounds!"

"A… what?" Arti asked.

"The trial can move around?" Tristan tilted his head "At least that's what I think that word means"

"COOORRECT!" Monokuma laughed after that.

"What the hell are we going to do?" David crossed his arms.

"You are going to argue, of course, but in a better way!" Monokuma took out a key and placed in in an object right in front of him. Suddenly, the trial grounds started to change and the podiums were lifted up.

.

.

.

 **Who remembered?**

.

.

.

 **The killer remembered:**

.

Chase

David

Delilah

Marisa

Tristan

Xi

.

 **Gabriel remembered:**

.

Arianna

Arti

Eliza

Larissa

Nonam

.

"Well, wouldn't it be obvious that the killer got their memories back, what other **motive** do they have?" Chase started off the debate.

"The killer… could have very well killed Gabriel _because_ he remembered! T-that would have been their **motive**!" Eliza replied.

"Seems like a lackluster motive to me, but the killer obviously wanted to **meet** with him to kill him." Xi smirked

"Yeah, but the person who didn't remember, chose where to **meet**. AKA the killer!" Nonam shot back.

"But would Gabriel really fall for a **trap** like that?" Marisa pointed out.

"If we can assume that Gabriel wouldn't have fallen for a **trap** like that, we can say the same about the killer!" Arti crossed his arms.

"So are you saying that Gabriel DIDN'T **choose** the place. That still sounds pretty reckless!"

David shook his head.

"That's exactly what we are implying! Gabriel DIDN'T **choose** the place. There's no other way to look at it! Why would he want to meet there?" Arianna told David

"Obviously to **kill** the person who remembered!" Delilah giggled a little.

"But he was to one to have been **killed** " Larissa told Delilah.

"It could very well be that the **killer** knew about what was going on…" Tristan started to think.

"If the **killer** knew about it! They wouldn't have agreed and run the risk of getting killed themselves!" Arti yelled back.

.

.

.

"So from all this! The person who remembered as to be Gabriel, and the killer wanted to kill Gabriel before he had a chance to do something with their memories." Arti said.

"Or maybe…" Nonam started to think. "They feared that Gabriel might have remembered something involving them, so they panicked…"

Xi sighed a little "I mean, I guess that could be it"

Tristan was still in deep thought "Where do we go from here? We already discussed the possibilities of who could have remembered. But there's still a lot we don't know…"

Chase started to think deeply. Something was bothering him.

"So, basically, Gabriel wanted to talk to someone about getting his memory back. And that person ended up killing him…" Arianna said.

"Well, who would he have talked to anyways…" Xi asked.

"It could have been any one of us…" Arti said.

"Or…" Chase said. "It was the one person who has been lying about what they really are!"

"Wait, lying about what they really are?" Arti asked.

Xi smirked devishely "Oh yes, I know what Chase is referring to"

"What IS he referring to?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"A specific person here lied about their true Ultimate Talent!" Chase called out.

 _Based on how I've seen him interact with everyone, the only person I can think of who has been lying about their talent is…_

"David…?" Arti looked at him.

He sent a death glare towards Arti "What, you think I'm lying?"

"No… but, what's this all about…?" He said

"It's about this…" Chase said as he removed a Monopad. A motive video. He pressed the button on it.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Chase Snips. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be David Talon What is with him? I heard about his strange way he testes out the weapons he makes… he doesn't use them on other weapons… HE USES THEM ON DEFENSELESS PEOPLE!" Monokuma laughed a lot "What better way to see if a weapon is useful, then using them on a person! If it cuts nicely! Then it should be good! Monokuma! Ou- Oh, well, I guess I did get your attention, well. Just between you and me. Aaaand I guess whoever you show this video too, David actually as a second talent. It starts with 'K' and ends with 'R'. I think you can put it together!" With one final laugh, the Monopad turned off.

.

 _What? What is this? The Ultimate…_

"Why are we even so sure those videos are even the truth?" David pointed out.

"Because…" Arianna started to talk "I've seen my video, and it's pretty much the truth. Although I hate to admit it..."

"As well as some of the other videos seeming pretty accurate…" Nonam pointed out "This one seems like it is also the case!"

"So… does that make David… The Ultimate Killer…?" Tristan almost took a step back.

The entire class trial went silent.

'What a strange and… interesting turns of event' Someone thought to themselves. 'I expected as much'

.

.

.

Class Trial

Intermission

.

.

.

"I do have to say he does have the psych of a killer" Xi smirked "I would know, I kinda did a psychological evaluation on everyone without them noticing. And he was, very interesting."

"..." David did not say anything.

Arti glared at him "David…"

"..."

"Seems like it's true…" Chase crossed his arms.

"..."

"DAVID! SPEAK TO ME!" Arti called out.

"So what if it's true…" He finally said. "Yeah, I've killed people before, but that shouldn't be the issue here…"

"What do you mean that shouldn't be the issue!" Chase yelled out "It means you could probably have killed Gabriel!"

David shook his head "Why would I kill Gabriel? Weren't you listening to the motive video about me. It kinda says why I wouldn't have killed him.

 _I… I guess he did. If he really was like that, he wouldn't break his own code…_

"The video said it itself, David only actually did killings with stuff he's made!" Arti said "And I'm pretty sure he didn't make the table saw blade…"

"What if he remembered he made it…" Chase said.

Arti shook his head "Didn't we already come to the conclusion that Gabriel remembered?"

"R-Right!" Chase said.

"And plus, had I made that table saw in the past, it would already be tainted with a death" David shrugged.

"W-why are you so open about killing…?" Eliza mumbled.

David shrugged again "Well, I'm pretty sure most of us have already done something. If mine is true, and Arianna claims hers is true. Then can we assume you actually poisoned someone!"

"W-w-w-wait! N-n-n-no! I-I didn't!" She was stuttering a lot.

Xi examined her facial expressions to see if there was a sign of her lying "Yup, I do have to say, she is definitely lying!"

Eliza wanted to say something back… but… nothing came out. Just silence.

"Alright, now is not the time to be ganging up on someone, especially if it doesn't relate to the case…" Nonam said. "We still have to find who killed Gabriel, which is our top priority."

"I guess…" David said.

"Also why lash out at Eliza when you were being accused!" Chase shouted out.

"It's what I do. Lies, deception. It's how I'm not in jail at the moment!" He smirked.

"Look, like I said, we are getting off topic!" Nonam called out.

"Should we start… talking about what the Monokuma File meant about the body being discovered an hour after it was discovered…" Marisa brought up.

.

"Well, it should be talking about when he was discovered" Chase said.

"Well of course, Gabriel got killed an hour before Arti and Nonam discovered him!" David brought up.

.

"I… don't think it was an hour before me and Nonam found him…" Arti said.

"Who could have found it before you?" Larissa asked.

Arti looked over at someone "Delilah did… although she isn't being very honest about it…"

"Teehee!" Delilah said. "I think that's wrong!" She called out "I only ever went there today after you two discovered the body!"

"What, why are going to keep lying?" Arti called out.

"According to video about her, she loves lying…" Arianna said.

"Well I do, but only to make things interesting…!" Delilah said

.

"So maybe I did go to the woodshop. But there's no for sure way to know that!" Delilah started up "If I was really there, I would have told you so!"

Arti started to fight back "Well, knowing you, you would have kept your mouth shut about the entire thing!"

She giggled a little "Do you even have any proof that I went there? Because no such proof exists!"

.

"Well yeah, there was something blood like on the third saw. But it couldn't have been blood…" Arti said.

"Oh yeah!" Delilah giggled "You mean the watermelons I threw into the table saw to pretend like it was an actual human head!" She giggled crazily.

"W-what the fuck!" Chase yelled out "I knew she was crazy! But isn't this crossing the line a little!"

"When you are meee! There is no crossing the line!" She giggled some more "I've crossed that line several years ago!"

"D-does that mean you did see the body before Arti and Nonam?" Eliza asked her.

"I mean, yeah, I walked into the woodshop and saw Gabriel's body. It wasn't my concern at the time so I turned on the third saw and did my experiment. I went back several times and finally, Arti and Nonam finally came to see what happened"

"How much time had passed between you finding the body and us finding the body?" Nonam crossed his arms.

"Oooooh! I'd have to say, an entire hour…!" She giggled.

"That means by the time we had discovered him! He had been dead for two hours!" Arti shouted out.

"Yep!" Delilah agreed.

"This… twisted bitch…" David said.

"Don't you kill people to test out your weapons?" Arianna asked him.

"Didn't you kill someone to get a role in a play?" David shot back.

Arianna was going to say something but stopped herself "It's not even worth fighting with someone like you."

"Should we move onto the next table saw?" Nonam asked "We just discussed how the third table saw came to be. And the first one is pretty obvious. But how did the second table saw get covered in blood?"

"Not just that…" Marisa started to think. "There was some white material covered in blood…" She was soon in deep thought

.

"Well, what if it was actually just saw dust?" Chase asked

"No, it wouldn't make sense…" Nonam said. "Because there was no cut wood there"

"..." Marisa was in deep thought "Was there any other material that appeared to be cut?

"Now that I think about it…" Arianna thought for a moment "Could it… be fur…?"

.

"Xi…" Arti started to say.

"Yes? That is my name" Xi said.

"You and Tristan were looking for his rat rig-?" Arti said.

"It's actually a mou-" Tristan tried to correct him.

"Yeah, but we never did find the damn rat!" Xi crossed his arms.

Arti turned to look at Tristan "Did you ever find your rat?"

"..." Tristan was still smiling, before it suddenly faded away "No… no I didn't"

"Then…" Arti started to think "I'm safe to assume that the reason why there is blood and supposedly fur around the second saw. Is because… your rat died there!"

For a second, Tristan looked like he wanted to scream. But no sound came out.

"It would make sense… for not even Tristan to find him…" Arti started to think.

"What… what would Tristan's mice even be doing at a place like the woodshop?" Nonam asked.

"Are you implying what I think you are implying!" Marisa crossed her arms.

"Well I actually agree with Nonam…" Xi smirked "I believe, given the new evidence… it could be apparent that Tristan and I's alibi no longer hold up… As we met after the new time of death!"

"Look, I want to find the killer…" David started to say "But do you really think Tristan could have done it?"

"Yeah, but do we have any other leads?" Chase crossed his arms.

"Ooooh?" Monokuma tilted his head. "Looks like you are split again! Weird! Ladies, Gentleman! And probably a killer. I'm proud to present the first ever morphenomenal trial grounds!"

"Not this bullshit again…" David sighed.

"YAY! Fun fun!" Delilah giggled.

Tristan remained silent. Probably still on shock by Mycen dying and being accused right after.

Suddenly… the Trial ground started to lift itself up… and the students split up into two sides.

.

.

.

 **Could Tristan be the killer?**

.

.

.

 **Tristan can't be the killer!**

.

 **Arianna**

 **David**

 **Eliza**

 **Marisa**

 **Tristan**

.

 **Tristan can be the killer!**

.

 **Arti**

 **Chase**

 **Delilah**

 **Larissa**

 **Nonam**

 **Xi**

.

"So, we are down to the bone to want to **accuse** Tristan?" David called out at them.

"Well, we have to **accuse** someone!" Larissa frowned

"Doesn't he have a strong **alibi**? He was with Xi!" Arianna said

"True, he was with me, and does indeed have an **alibi** , but according to what information we now know. The murder occurred way before then" Xi smirked

"T-that would still leave a very small **window** to be able to commit it…" Eliza pointed it out.

"That might be true, but it still gives him a **window** to do it!" Arti said.

"Why would he even go there! I don't think he even knew the **room** existed!" Marisa desperately tried to defend him.

"What a strange thing, he was in the **room** with me when the third floor opened" Delilah giggled.

"Well of course anyone knew about it, but did he really even know how to use the saw?" David shot back.

"You'd have to be an idiot NOT to know how to use the **saw**." Chase crossed his arms

"I wouldn't have even known how to turn it **on**!" Tristan tried to defend himself.

"You wouldn't have needed to turn it **on** , or else you wouldn't have been able to leave." Nonam said

.

"So with that. A lot of evidence points towards Tristan actually." Arti said.

"It can't be him!" Marisa called out. "I… you mentioned that he didn't need to have turned in on, and if he did, he wouldn't have been able to leave! Where's the proof for that?" She said

"The woodshop rules!" Arti called out "You were in the room investigating too. So you should have seen them…"

"..." Marisa tried to say something but had to collect her thoughts "Then who turned it on?"

 _What? Why is she not letting this go?_

"Gabriel did…" Arti said.

"Gabriel? What reason did he have to turn it on?" Marisa asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. But someone besides the killer had to have turned it on! And that only leaves Gabriel to have done it!" He pointed out.

"Yeah, but we still have other mysteries too! Like how did Gabriel's shoes get tied up. How would Gabriel not have noticed that. And what about the injuries to his knuckles?"

 _That was probably caused by the same reason…_

"Mycen…" Arti said.

"You mean his mouse? How would the mouse be able to do that?" Marisa tried to counter.

"..." Tristan started to think.

"Well as the Ultimate Animal Caretaker! He should have it well trained" Xi smirked.

"Tristan…" Marisa frowned. "Please don't tell me it's you…"

But still, he remained silent.

"Tristan…?" She seemed even more worried.

Despite all this, he didn't speak…

Until.

"You caught me" He smiled, but it seemed very forced. "Yeah, I killed Gabriel… But, you did get one thing wrong…"

"What was that?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"I'm the one who got the memories back!" He smiled

"Wait what!" Arti asked

"Aaanyways! Make your closing argument!" Despite being close to death, he smiled.

 _What… it's like he wants… me to do this…_

"Alright…" Arti frowned

.

.

.

Act 1: This whole event started when Monokuma gave us the motive for this time. The motive, this time. Was the chance to remember what happened to us. As expected, someone had gone for it. Arianna, Nonam, and I tried to take it so no one had to do it. However, by the time we had gotten there, the killer had already remembered everything they needed to do.

.

Act 2: After getting their memories back, they settled on a target for unknown reasons. Gabriel, the victim of this case. To contact him, they sent him a letter telling him that they had gotten their memories back and they would like to meet. Gabriel, sensing a trap, decided on the meeting place being the woodshop on the third floor. The killer, agreed to the terms, despite the dangers.

.

Act 3: All the killer had to do now was take the library elevator, for a easy escape if things turned south. We are unaware how the killer even knew about this in the first place. But that's not the important part. The victim, Gabriel, was setting stuff up in the woodshop at the time.

.

Act 4: He had turned on the first and second saw. Leaving the third one off. His probable plan was to have the first one distract the killer from the second one directly behind him. Soon, the killer arrived at the room. This took Gabriel by surprise, who was probably expecting someone way different. But he wasn't going to let that stop what he had planned.

.

Act 5: The two probably had a conversation about what the killer remembered. Maybe Gabriel said something to anger them, who knows. But a small smart mouse managed to tie up Gabriel's shoes together. This, of course would have set Gabriel off. Once the mouse returned to the killer, he probably started to get really mad. The killer was trying to calm him down him down. But the mouse acted on it's own. Jumping at Gabriel and biting his knuckles. At the time we didn't know what it was, but the injury was so small, it couldn't be anything BESIDES that, now that we think about it. Since all other tools have been left alone.

.

Act 6: Gabriel, reacting to the mouse biting him, threw him off his knuckles. But, he probably couldn't have had a worse aim. The saw that he was planning on using on the killer, was what sealed his own fate. The mouse landed straight on it. Cutting him to pieces. And it was goodbye Mycen.

.

Act 7: This, of course enraged the killer beyond the point of return. Caught up in the moment and probably unable to assert the situation, got mad at Gabriel. And showed him a little. This wouldn't have done much had Gabriel's shoes not been tied together. And not just that, if his knuckles weren't weakened, he could have caught himself. But because they were, there was no stopping this. His head fell right into the table saw, killing him on impact.

.

Act 8: The killer, now realizing what they had done. They had just murdered the leader of the group. They didn't even know how to react! Not just that, but they were covered in blood! If anyone would see them, they would be dead! Retreating back to the library. He had to think of a way to get rid of a blood that did not point him out.

.

Act 9: He took the elevator to the second floor and made sure no one was around, making a rush to the pool. Which they took a dip in and dried off somehow. There was probably water trail leading to the bathroom it belonged to. But there was no time to check it out myself. As I had to go meet somewhere else.

.

Act 10: Once they had washed up and dried off. They scurried down to the library and took it down to first floor and waited. They planned to ask the first person they met to help them search for their missing ra-"

.

"Mouse"

.

"- Whatever! Xi, was the person that ended up being asked. Despite not wanting to do it, he obliged. This game the killer a solid alibi"

.

Act 11: This is when the first person discovered the body. Delilah walked into the woodshop, and saw Gabriel. Making her the first person towards the Body Discovery Announcement. She didn't really seem to care and continued to do what she was planning to do.

.

Act 12: About an hour after that, Nonam met up with me, thinking that I was causing some noise. When I told him it wasn't me. He got seemingly more worried and we both rushed over to the woodshop. We must have not have seen the blood outside the door since we didn't know what to expect. But, a dead body wasn't one of them. Especially not a dead body of the person who had lead us so thoughtfully.

.

This crime could have only been committed by you, Tristan Everton! The Ultimate Animal Caretaker!"

.

"Isn't this right… Tristan?" Arti asked.

Tristan remained silent for a bit before talking "For the most part…"

"The… most part…?" Arti seemed rather confused.

"Well, you said is was purely by accident…" Tristan said, looking the other way.

"Wait, are you saying you WANTED to kill him?" Xi crossed his arms.

He tilted his head a little "I remembered some pretty dark stuff. And when he attacked me, I decided that I should push his head in. He didn't fall into it…"

"W-what…" Marisa was shocked.

"Oh… the things I remembered…" Tristan grinned.

Nonam seemed very deep in thought, like things weren't adding up. "..."

"What did you remember?" Arianna asked.

He smirked "Wouldn't you like to know what I remembered. Well, I'd say. Maybe about two years worth of things! Some of your dark secrets were even in there! Why do you think I went after Gabriel anyways? He wasn't the leader he claimed to be…!"

"Something… is off…" Nonam started to say. "I don't think you would act like this if you got your memory back!"

"Huh" Tristan took a semi step back.

"This is all wrong!" He called out.

Tristan started to laugh a little "All wrong? All wrong? What's all wrong?"

"This entire going crazy thing is just an act!" He yelled out "And we could probably prove it!"

 _Is this… how Tristan truly is… no… no there has to be another way!_

.

"So, where's your proof that this isn't my true nature?" Tristan asked. "Is it something I said?" His voice sounded somewhat twisted. "Is it a contradiction? Or could it be I lead you to something?"

.

"But you DID lead us to an important clue!" Arti shot back "You pointed out the library being on the first floor, something you very well used. We wouldn't have been able to figure out this mystery had it not been for that"

Tristan shook his head "Well I had to act like I was helping… Of course"

"That's the thing…" Nonam said "You helping out is what's weird. Every trial you rarely spoke unless the topic directly involved you. Here, you seemed to join in on your own accord!"

Arianna decided to speak too "Not just that, you were one of the people who claimed the killer got his memories back. I don't understand why you would even do that!"

"..." Tristan tried to think of something to say. "Oh, then why won't I tell you what happened. You all have a right to know! That doesn't seem very cooperative to me!"

 _Why… why is the reason he won't tell us?_

"Because it's like Monokuma told us! Anyone you tell will be killed!" Arti said "If you were really evil, you would tell us all right now!"

"..." Tristan froze into place. He was about to speak when a voice rang through the silence.

"Tristan! Please! Stop!"

He turned to look at who had spoken. It was Marisa.

"Why… why are you doing this…?" She asked.

"..." He had no reply.

"Please… answer me… was this whole friendly act fake!" She called him out.

But, the silence was inevitable. It happened. For a long time. Nobody spoke at all. However, suddenly, crying could be heard.

Coming from Tristan.

"Why… why do you have to make this hard for yourself" He cried out. "I'm trying to make this into a situation where you don't feel bad! I killed someone… I… I don't need remorse. I lost that the moment I shoved him into it…"

"Tristan…" She started to say. "I know you didn't mean to kill him! You would never do something like that. But I can also tell when you are lying!"

"Please…" He used his hat to cover his face "Just stop it… I already told you… I don't want you all to feel bad… the memory wasn't actually something that turned me insane… I just… I just wanted to talk to him!"

 _It seems… that he was only doing the whole loopy thing so we wouldn't feel bad for him. In the end, his actions indicate that he wanted to be caught and executed. He isn't crying because he's scared of dying. He's crying because he brought pain to a lot of us._

"Look… Tristan…" Arti started to say "The game has affected us in ways… we couldn't image. We act ways we wouldn't act in real life…" He took a glance at Larissa, remembering the conversation they had not too long ago.

"But… I took away Gabriel…" He kept crying. "Like I said… I… I don't need forgiveness.

"I am curious about why you wanted to talk to Gabriel, however…" Xi said.

"Why I talked to Gabriel…? Oh… right… In the memories I got back. He was a big part of it. Like he was leading us, but something didn't quite feel right… And it lined up with this…" He took out a Monopad and fiddled with it until he found the right thing. The bottom right number turned to three as it turned on.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Tristan Everton. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Gabriel Peterson! What is with him? He is such a charismatic guy. How did he get those traits you say? By doing nothing but leading, of course! What a splendid leader. Until some event in his life made him turn somewhat sour in a way. Although his attitude never really changed, he started leading, more questionable groups. But who knows? Since when do you trust little old me?" With one last laugh, the screen turned off.

.

"That's the video about Gabriel. So you had his…" Arti said.

"I did, but I didn't pay much mind to it, until I got my memories back. He lead us, but it didn't seem like we were the only people he lead. There was a group he absolutely refused to talk about. So I wanted to ask him questions there. He must have known that and picked the woodshop." He started to slow down his talking. "I… I have some hatred for stuff meant to be used on wood. After all, it wouldn't be the first time stuff like that was almost used on me…"

"Someone tried to use those on you!" Marisa yelled out.

"Well… not exactly on me… but they almost did. I can't go to much into detail…" He started to think again "Anyways, when I first confronted Gabriel, all but two of the saws were turned on. Which scared me. But I decided to continue to talk to Gabriel. But he seemed, rather angry. When I mentioned what his video said about him. He tried to take a step towards me. It's why Mycen tied his shoes up. So he couldn't move. And… you pretty much know the rest from there…" He turned to look at Monokuma. "You can start the voting!" He turned towards everyone else "My final wish is that you send me away without crying."

 _And with those words, we, we couldn't do anything but vote. It seemed this is how Tristan wanted to pay for what he did and he accepted that he was going to die._

.

A roulette appeared out of nowhere and started to rotate it's options. Soon, all three of them landing on Tristan's face with the words 'Guilty' under them.

.

"You are all CORRECT!" Monokuma called out. "It was Tristan Everton all along. Even if it was accidental murder. It's STILL murder!"

Tristan looked to the ground in a mix of sadness and happiness. He thought to himself that he deserved every minute of this punishment. But on the other hand, he was sad about everything he had done.

"Tell me one thing, Tristan…" Nonam asked.

"Hmmm?" He tilted his head.

"Why… why did you decide to go get your memories back?" He asked.

"Oh! Simple" He answered "I felt like I was going to be one of the few to control it. I knew other people would have been able, but I didn't want to risk it. In the end… I think that's why all of this happened…"

Nonam shook his head "You should have just have let someone else do it… I had a plan for it"

"I've prepared a special punishment for Tristan Everton! The Ultimate Animal Caretaker!" Monokuma yelled out.

"I guess I acted irrationally…" He sighed.

"Tristan… please… don't go!" Marisa called out. She was on the verge of tears.

"Let's give it everything we got!" The bear continued on.

"Please…" He smiled "Don't cry…"

"IT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!"

.

Tristan Everton has been found guilty. It's time for punishment.

.

Tristan was standing alone, wait, no, he was standing with animals at his side, inside a forest. The sound of trees being cut down could be heard in the distance. He looked around for the source of the noise. Soon, one of the animals spotted it, but tried to run off. Sadly, it's foot was chained to the ground. The thing that startled it, was a giant machine used to cut down trees. And it was coming straight for them. Tristan wanted to run but he couldn't leave the animals behind. He started to loosen the shackle around the deer's foot, freeing it. Once it was free, they both ran off. The other animals, having already scattered. But no matter how far he ran, the machine was faster. And with its saw blade, moving like an arm. It seemed like there was no escape.

 _Slash!_

The first cut happened on his back, which left a huge mark, making him toppled to the ground. He told the deer to run away, but it didn't listen. Soon…

 _Slice!_

One of his arms were cut off. He was losing blood quickly.

 _SLICE!_

This time, a leg… The deer looked deeply into his eyes, before running off. He smiled at the deer, before he was turned to a pile of nothing by the saws. Almost unrecognizable… Tristan, was no more…

.

 _There… was silence. No one wanted to say anything… But we just witnessed Tristan, someone who seemed so pure in this world, reduced to nothing but guts. We… we couldn't even tell what he was anymore. Anything that made him, him, was gone… he was no longer of this world… And that is a reality we had to come to once again…_

"What a b-e-a-utiful execution, wouldn't you say?" Monokuma asked everyone.

"D-d-dammit!" Marisa yelled out.

 _Monokuma laughed at the despair that filled the room. There was no way to recover from something like this. For someone… like Tristan to have murdered Gabriel. That means any one of us can commit the act. At this rate, it seems the most likely candidates are the less likely ones to do it… what… what has happened…_

"Well" He continued to laugh "I don't have time to be wasting here! So I'll be on my way!" And with that… he disappeared so suddenly…

 _The room remained silent. Marisa, who had nothing to say, left the room and took the elevator. One by one, they all left too, still, the silence remained. Although I couldn't move. I inadvertently killed Tristan by exposing him as the killer. However, it's what he wanted… so I can't just ignore his wish… I looked around the room and noticed that everyone else was gone. Having nothing else to do, I entered the elevator and left_.

.

A person, however, had stayed behind. "Well, isn't this somewhat boring… Hey! Monokuma!"

The bear appeared right beside the person "What do you wa-! Oh it's you! Hello, traitor person!"

"I have...a favor to ask of you. I think I have a possible next motive…" They leaned in towards Monokuma and started whispering.

"Mhm! Yes… I see… Makes sense… Eat the cat… Yes… Ignore the cat part!" He said.

The person leaned away and smirked.

"But I think it's A SPLENDID IDEA!" Monokuma laughed "Buuut, to make it so, you still owe me a favor. Someone has been pestering me! I want them taken out, and soooon!"

The person started to leave, doing a weak wave towards Monokuma "Whatever you say, bear"

And the elevator door closed, with only them inside.

.

Ten Students Remaining...


	8. Chapter 4: Traitor Among Us - Daily Life

_We were running, sirens blaring in the background. There was no escaping, no matter how hard we ran, they would catch us._

" _Maybe we should just give up…" I said to the person with me._

" _No… we… we can't…" The person said._

 _But, it was no use, soon, we reached a dead end._

" _Dammit!" They said. "Piece of shit…"_

 _I didn't know what to do either. And soon, a bright light engulfed our vision_

.

.

.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The sound of the morning announcement woke up Nonam from his slumber. The announcement played in the background but he paid no mind to it. Once he got himself ready he left to go to the cafeteria. The events of yesterday were still fresh in his mind. They had lost not only Gabriel, but also Tristan. They were down to ten people, meaning six people had already died.

Once in the cafeteria, it hit him more. It felt so empty… only eight people there. And with himself, nine. It seemed like David wasn't there. The mood was already gloomy but for some reason, someone was trying to keep the energy going.

"We… We can't let this keep us down…!" Marisa said. "Yes, we lost Gabriel and Tristan, but we managed to survive this long… worrying will only guarantee that they can't rest in peace!"

Nonam took a seat at the table and nodded.

Eliza sighed sadly before standing up "Your… your right… and we can't just stay here and do nothing…"

Delilah quickly stood up "Oooo! I got an idea!"

The swordsman leaned back in his chair. "And what would that be…?"

"Well duuuuh!" She giggled "Shouldn't we have access to another floor now?"

Arianna nodded "It would be wise to go check it out…"

"But…" Larissa spoke up "Everytime we go to a new floor, a murder happens there…"

The mood, quickly got somber.

"Yeah, but, maybe we might find something useful…" Marisa said. "We won't know unless we check!" She stood up "Well, I'm going!" She left the room, with Eliza following behind her.

Chase took a deep sigh. "This just feels like an endless cycle. Tomorrow, we'll probably get another motive, and in a few days, someone will be killed. We'll have a class trial. Rinse and repeat." He slowly stood up "But, there's nothing we can do to stop that… so…" He headed out and followed the two girls.

Slowly, everything started to leave until only Arianna and Xi remained.

She turned to look at Nonam "I'll go on ahead, I'll be waiting for you." She got up and left.

Nonam _was_ going to follow her until Xi stopped him "Well, I think we should do something else. We do have a natural killer on our hands…"

He crossed his arms "And what do you need me for?"

Xi gave off a shrug "Who knows? I guess two heads are better than one. Especially if that one head is crazy" He laughed it off.

"I don't want to have anything to do with what you are planning…"

Xi chuckled a little "I just want to talk to the boy, nothing more. I knew all along after all. I could have done anything I wanted to him!" He started to laugh a lot "Buuuut… I digress… We should head now. You don't want to keep Arianna waiting toooo long…" With that, he headed out of the cafeteria.

 _Well… It's not like I have much of a choice, I can't exactly let Xi alone with David. Who knows what he will do…_

He made his way over to David's room, which was already opened.

 _If I had to guess, Xi picked the lock and simply walked in… typical…_

Nonam carefully stepped into the room, but the room was not what he was expecting. But it was very fitting to the Ultimate Blacksmith/Killer.

Small knives lined up the walls of the room, some in cases. The ones in cases seemed more valuable than the ones simply hung on the wall. From a first glance, Nonam noticed that about fourteen of the knives on the walls were missing and one from the case was missing. In total, fifteen knives were missing. But it wasn't much of a mystery of where they went.

"You brought another one?" David's voice could be heard, obviously annoyed. His attire pretty different. He wore the same maroon shirt, but over it, he was wearing a black and maroon coat. Probably used to conceal weapons.

"Well of course! I can't do the good cop, bad cop routine with myself!" Xi said.

He took a glance at Nonam before shaking his head "It seems you'll both be the bad cops…"

Xi took a deep breath "You don't need to lock yourself in here!"

"Oh? You don't even understand the reason why I'm locking myself in here" He said

"Because you think everyone, knowing what you really are, will gang up on you and kill you, ending your miserable excuse of a life."

"... Alright, maybe you do…"

Nonam, just kinda stood there, he wasn't really going to do. He decided before anyone notices, he should slip out now. He had to meet up with Arianna after all.

On his way towards the staircase, he passed by a certain someone's room and heard a noise coming from inside.

 _Wait… was that…? No… it can't be… can it…?_

He thought for a few moments before he decided to pick the lock. No use worrying now, that person is dead. But that's not what Nonam was thinking.

.

.

.

Nonam made it to the fourth floor and saw several things. There were four more special rooms and three classrooms.

"Took you long enough" Arianna crossed her arms.

Nonam shook his head "I got caught up by Xi and then I something else happened. But I'll tell you later…"

She gave us a sad pout before looking at the rooms that were in front of them "So four new special ones… huh…" She walked over to one without Nonam being able to say anything. He followed her into the room and was greeted by a nice sight. A beautiful combination of paint splatters were there. They seemed so random, but they fight in with the rest of the room. There were some beautiful statues of historical figures. Although they looked so real.

"This room is really beautiful" Arianna smiled. "I know how hard it is to paint…" She was looking at some paintings on the wall "I did paint for a while, but being the Ultimate Actor really did get in the way. I had no time to pursue painting. Imagine having two Ultimate Talents…?" She smiled at Nonam.

He sighed and smiled back "That… would be an amazing feat.

A sound that can only be identified as someone on ecstasy, fucking a pig that was not only on ecstasy, but apparently some other type of drug.

Basically a very loud pitch squealing.

Oh.

It was Delilah.

"The art is so amazing here!" She ran over to the statues and grabbed the arm of one of the statues. "Wow… so firm…!" She looked around the rest of the room "This place is amazing. Would be soooooooo unfortunate if a murder happened here!" She giggled and ran over to a dresser that was nearby. She opened it to reveal a dead bo- just kidding. There were only supplies. "Boooring! I was hoping someone would already be dead!" She pouted, before turning to the other two "So! Do you two like art too?"

"Yes" Nonam started to say "It's a great way to express one's se-"

She seemed to pout again "That's a boring answer!" She left the room without saying anything else.

The two just stayed still in silent, not wanting to even say anything.

After a few moments of silence, Arianna finally spoke up "What the hell is wrong with her?"

"The world may never know…"

They both left the room to try and see if there were any other rooms worth exploring. And hopefully Delilah wouldn't make an appearance there.

The next room they walked into was a… beauty salon?

Nonam took one look at it and immediately walked out simply saying "Nope"

He was, sadly, dragged back in by not Arianna, but Larissa. "Hey! I need to try this room! And I'll test it on you!"

"I… highly doubt you are qualified…" He sighed.

"Hey, the things I had to do to match people together! You think I simply stopped at saying they should be together? No, I MADE them perfect for one another!" She guided Nonam, who didn't want any part of this, to a chair and made him sit down.

"Please… don't…" He sighed.

Alas, it was too late. She had already started and there was nothing Nonam could do.

It took a good half hour for Larissa to finally finished.

Sadly, I can't describe how it looks because it's stupid. And because I'm lazy.

Larissa turned towards Arianna and smiled "Does that make you like him more?"

She actually thought it looked really nice for him. "I think you should keep it like that!" She smiled.

"No" Was his only answer. "I don't want to have to do my hair every day, it's fine the way it is." He messed it up before standing up and walking towards the back. "What's back here?"

"I already checked that out, it should be the costume room. This is the side entrance. The main one is in the hallway…" Larissa smiled.

Nonam stepped in and looked around. What he saw was Eliza wearing a little red riding hood costume. She noticed that they were there and got really flustered.

"H-hey! What are you doing here?" She blushed hard. "I-I locked the door!"

"There's… two doors…" Nonam said.

"W-What! Two doors?" She blushed harder "I didn't know!"

Arianna walked over to Eliza and looked at her costume, being the Ultimate Actor and all, she had a lot of knowledge on costumes. "It looks really nice on you" She smiled.

This, did not help Eliza at all and she simply blushed more. "N-no it doesn't…"

Chase walked out from the back wearing a Romeo type of costume. "This really fits me!"

Arianna crossed her arms and smirked "You don't seem to mind Chase being here"

That comment probably made Eliza slightly mad and she soon kicked them out of the room. Including Chase.

"Dammit…" He sighed "I had finally gotten somewhere…"

Arianna rolled her eyes and looked over at the final room. "One more room…"

 _This floor seems to have a distinctive theatre theme in a way…_

"It might be a room with a set…" Nonam suggested.

The duo walked over to the final room and he was right. It was a set for acting. Several scene sets were off to side. Props aligned the back wall that was there. They were visible since there was no curtain.

Arti and Marisa were in this room, the latter, going through the props.

"What are you doing Marisa?" Nonam asked her.

"Hmm… just seeing what type of props there are… and making sure they aren't real…" She said. "We don't want any weapons in here…"

"I… don't really think it matters…" Arti sighed, leaning against the wall. "The training room on the third floor as tons of weapons. There's a ton of knives on the first floor. I have my weapons in my room, so all someone as to do is break in…"

Marisa frowned a little "But if there's a way to get less weapons…"

"If someone really wanted to kill, there being less weapons then there could be won't stop them…" He let out a sigh.

"I'm going to have to agree with Arti…" Nonam sighed "It seems the more floors we get, the more methods to killing there is…"

"Well… we are down to ten people… surely no one will kill someone… right…?"

Arti let out another sigh "I wish it was like that… But there's simply people we can't trust. Like David, and Xi. And I don't think Delilah is quite there in the head… so any of them could very well kill at any opportunity…"

The room went silent before Marisa spoke up "We need to get out of here… we already lost six people… we can't afford to lose anymore…"

 _She's probably… thinking about Tristan… She was the person he talked to the most. The only person who managed to get a lot of words out of him…_

She slowly shook her head "But… feeling this way won't do anything… let's try our best to survive!" She smiled before going back to looking through the props again.

 _She… isn't going to stop, is she?_

Arianna walked over to the stage and smiled "We should hold a show here or something… But there wouldn't be an audience…"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"An audience you say?" He smirked. "Wow, if only there was an audience. If only. Nope! We don't have anything like that!"

The room was pretty silent. For a bit.

"I can be the audience" Monokuma suggested.

A collective 'No' could be heard throughout the room.

"Wow, so rude!" Monokuma seemed sad, before vanishing.

Arianna shook her head "Forget my idea… it wouldn't work out anyways…"

Nonam smiled at her "No, I think the show idea would be great. It would help everyone calm down"

She returned the smile at him "Alright! But… I don't know what play to… well… play!"

"Well I'm sure the Ultimate Actor as an idea of their favourite play!" He smiled.

She slowly nodded "Yeah! I'll think of something!" She joyfully left the room, probably thinking of what play to have happen.

 _This seems like the last room worth exploring…_

Suddenly, the door to the room burst open and there stood Eliza. She was clutching what appeared to be a file in her hands. "Huh… I find something and I want to show it to everyone… so… can we all meet up in the cafeteria?" And without waiting for a reply, she was gone. Probably to go tell the others.

 _What could she have possibly found?_

…

 _There's no use thinking right now, I should just head over to the cafeteria…_

.

.

.

Nonam made it to the cafeteria with Arti and Marisa, since they were in the same room. Surprisingly, David and Xi were there. It must be pretty important.

Noticing everyone was there, Eliza took out the file she had. "Well… I found this in the costume room… hidden deep inside a box… I don't know the credibility… but…"

"Just get on with it!" David got mad at her "Once you show us, I'm heading back to my room!"

This, made her even more nervous "O-O-OK!" She opened the file and placed it on the table. "It has to do with apparently… some questionable people…"

Nonam got closer to take a look at the document.

It showed a small group of criminals who apparently ran things behind the scenes of various things. However, the sources that claimed this were very sketchy to begin with. And not to add the fact that Monokuma apparently signed it.

"W-what if they are the ones keeping us here…?" Eliza brought up. "It would make the most sense…"

Nothing in this file really interested Nonam or changed his thought process, he simply frowned at it. The sources were unreliable, but…

"So the only way out is to probably kill those fuckers…" David sneered.

Eliza shook her head "W-we can solve this peacefully…"

"Peacefully? Six of us are already dead! I say we kill at least six of them!

Nonam shook his head "I agree, let's not go for violence…"

David quickly stood up "They made us go through all of this! They deserve to be dead!"

The swordwielder shook his head at David "You just want an excuse to kill…"

"I- Why you!" He was going to fight back against Arti but someone stopped him.

"E-Enough!" Eliza shouted out, putting herself between the two "W-we don't have time for this…"

For some reason, David decided to calm down and leave.

"This whole discussion is going nowhere…" Marisa sighed "Maybe we should all just head out and do our own things…"

Xi shrugged "It does make it easier to kill!" And with that, he also left.

"That's not what I meant!" Marisa shouted back. But it was pointless. "Dammit…"

"It's… probably is better to go our own ways, however" Nonam said.

The journalist sighed before looking at everyone "Just please… don't try and kill anyone…" She was talking to everyone but it was probably pretty clear who the message was aimed for.

Arti started to walk away, his hand awfully close to the handle of his sword. "No guarantees…"

The room fell silent; why was it like this and why wouldn't it end. The torture and endless cycle of killing, and smoking out the killer. Everytime when it seemed like it would stop, it started up again.

Without much of any other words spoken. More people started leaving. In the end, only Arianna, Eliza, Marisa, and Nonam stayed.

"W-we need to do something to ease the tension…" Eliza mumbled.

"I guess that just gives me more reason to think of what play to have us do…" Arianna replied.

"Wait? We are doing a play?" Eliza turned to look at her.

She thought for a moment "Maybe… I'm not sure if anyone would even want that anyways…"

"Well, hopefully they are! I… I can go ask around…" Eliza suggested, eagerly.

She slowly nodded "If you want… I'll head over my room to think of some plays. Or maybe the library might help…" And with that, she left.

Marisa let out a visible sigh "We are lost without Gabriel…" _She looked like she almost wanted to cry, but she had good reason to. Both Gabriel and Tristan died yesterday, and at this rate, more people are going to die._ "Well, staying here won't do any good for everyone…" And with that, Marisa also left.

 _I guess I should head back…_

Nonam started to leave before being stopped by Eliza.

"Hey… I think food would cheer everyone up! So I need your help!" She said.

"Aren't you… the Ultimate Chef?" He asked her.

"Y-yeah! But I don't have time to be doing the dishes and I'm planning on making a lot of food!" She mumbled shyly. "Please!"

 _And with that, I ended up helping Eliza make food, even if I only did the dishes. Although I did actually make some of the food because her hands were almost always full. Apparently according to her, I'm a natural._

.

.

.

Nonam was back in his room, lying on his bed, looking at the ceiling.

 _Why did Gabriel have to die… he was basically holding the group together… now, there's most likely going to be more fights that break out. And what does Monokuma even have planned…? I should head out for now…_

Nonam got up off his bed and headed to his door to leave. Once out, he headed over to the cafeteria, where Chase, Eliza, and Marisa were setting up the tables.

 _Oh yeah, I guess Eliza DID want us all to have a big diner today… I should probably help out._

He walked over to them "Anything you need me to help with?"

Marisa stopped what she was doing to think of an answer "Huh… Just setting up the table is fine…"

Nonam obliged and started to help out with the tables.

"Does everyone even know about this…?" Chase sighed "I can go tell everyone if you want…"

"Oh no you aren't" Eliza pouted slightly. "You just want to get away so you don't have to set up the tables!"

"I mean yeah, but. Seriously, why do he have to set up a lot of tables. We are only ten anyways." He pointed out.

The look on Eliza's face was like her world was shattered. She was probably used to hosting bigger events with, obviously, way more people. So she kinda got lost in the moment "R-right…" She mumbled.

Chase, realizing his mistake, tried to think of something to say "Well, either way, it gives off an amazing mood. And we could probably use the other tables to set the food on, and use the main table to eat!"

"Y-yeah!" Eliza perked up "Anyways! Hurry up! We only have two hours before everyone gets here!" She soon disappeared into the kitchen again.

Chase sighed a sigh of relief. "That was a close one…"

Nonam shook his head and continued to set up the multitude of tables that were present.

 _It looks like Eliza is trying to keep this group together… no matter what. Well, a lot of us are, which is probably why we are even setting these stuff up. Well, I feel like Chase as an ulterior motive but that's not worth going into._

"Hey…" Marisa spoke up "What do you think the next motive given by Monokuma will be…?"

 _That… was not a subject I wanted to talk about…_

"Probably something stupid…" Chase rolled his eyes "But… we are smarter than to fall for them, right…?"

Marisa sent an angry glare at Chase, probably because of Tristan.

"Geez, I didn't mean it like that… I meant it more as what other motives would want to get us to kill each other…" He sighed.

 _Well… there are a few…_

"But… knowing Monokuma… he's going to make me eat those words" Chase let out another sigh. "Dammit…"

"He does appear to be one step ahead of us at all times…" Marisa said "And knows what we are doing at all times… He probably has cameras set up everywhere. However, I haven't seen any yet…" She continued "And I would have noticed cameras during the first few days…"

"Yeah…" Nonam started to think.

 _True… I haven't seen any cameras and I just assumed they were there… But… then how does Monokuma monitor us… Even with cameras! There need to be areas he can't see… Wait! Blind spots! Of course…-_

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Hey! No talking about cameras! Hidden or not!" He said.

"Monokuma! What are you doing here!" Marisa called out.

"What? Me? I'm allowed to go anywhere I want!" He shouted "But I heard there was going to be a great diner prepared by the Ultimate Chef! And I'm honestly hurt…" He pouted.

Chase sighed and shook his head. "State your business!"

"I want to be invited too!" Monokuma yelled out.

"Why would we ever invite you?" Marisa crossed her arms.

"You don't even know…" He sounded hurt "I supply you all with the food!"

She shook her head "So?"

"It means I can take away all the food!" He shouted out.

"No! Nonononono!" An angry Eliza stormed out of the kitchen

"Wow! Who knew she could get angry" Monokuma sounded a little scared, before running off.

"W-wait…" She said shyly "I didn't mean to get angry…"

Marisa shrugged "It's Monokuma, who cares…"

Eliza looked around at the tables and noticed they were all ready to have the food placed on them. "Oh! The food!" She yelled lowly before heading back to the kitchen.

 _She really is a different person when she is making food..._

"Well, I think that's it for now…" Chase said, relieved. "I'm heading back to my room…"

"I guess I should head back to…" Marisa let out a little yawn before walking away.

 _Yeah… me too… But that camera talk… we haven't seen any but… they have to be there!_

.

.

.

Nonam was waiting in his room for the time for the diner to be upon them. Although he was losing track of time, someone was now in his room.

"Chase! What the hell!" He shouted.

Chase was indeed in his room "You really shouldn't leave your door unlocked. Not with people with David on the loose… we should tie him down…" He sighed.

"What do you want…?"

Chase pointed to the clock in Nonam's room. "Did you not look at the time? It's time for the meal Eliza prepared…"

Nonam shot a glance towards the clock and sighed "Right… I guess I lost track of time…" He got up and headed for the door, Chase, having left when he had gotten up from the bed.

 _Well, I helped set up and I guess Eliza wants everyone to go. So of course I will go…_

He left his room and headed towards the cafeteria, everyone was already there. Even David, although he secluded himself to a far off table away from the rest.

 _I don't blame him, I guess… No one trusts him… Even less now…_

He got some food and found himself a nice spot to sit, next to Arianna. "Hey, did you think of a play yet?"

"Well…" She started "I thought long and hard but I couldn't come up with a conclusive decision. And then I got a suggestion from, well, I guess a little birdy?" She laughed a little "I'll say what it is later in the meal."

He nodded back and took a bite from his food.

.

.

.

The evening went on normally, many jokes and laughs were said. Even then, the mood was kinda still depressing as this would have been better with the six other missing people. But alas, that will never be able to happen.

Soon, Arianna took a her glass and a fork and started to hit it with the fork to get everyone's attention. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

"So… huh… since the fourth floor is full of stuff for plays. I was thinking that we should all do one. I already have a play in mind!" She quickly got up "I thought for a bit, and I think a nice play would be a nice classical one. One we would all know!"

"Hamilton?" David called out from the back

"What? No." She shook her head.

"Macbeth?" Chase asked.

"No…" She sighed.

"Merchant of Venice?" Arti smirked. He was mostly doing that to get a reaction.

"No! Just let me finish talking! You know what? Delilah! You say it. You really wanted that play!" She sat down a little angrily.

Her eyes lit up as she stood on her chair, and thank god, not the table "Well I suggested to her…!" There was a long pause.

"Get on with it!" Arti shouted.

"Alright, well fuck you! I suggested Romeo and Juliet because fuck you all!" She sat down in her chair again. But of course she mumbled something under her breath "Bitch…"

Arianna was going to say something but Delilah had kinda ruined the moment.

"So… who's getting what roles…?" Arti asked. It didn't seem like this but he had really like theatre class.

"I haven't decided that…" Arianna sighed "We are only doing it if everyone wants to. Also you might have to play more than one role because we… well… aren't enough." She looked down.

"It's not that I want to complain…" Chase sighed "But what's the point of doing this without an audience?"

"Did you say audience?" Monokuma said, somehow also sitting at the table. Not even a 'Suddenly. Bear'

"When did you get here!" Chase shouted, almost falling out of his seat.

"I've been here the whole time!" He said angrily. "No one noticed me… Anyways! I'm here for two reasons! Reason number one! The audience! I can be the one member of the audience… but the other members, the people outside, may watch you!"

"The… people outside…?" Larissa asked. It almost sent a shiver down her spine "Are people… watching us kill each other.

"I mean, probably." Monokuma stifled a laugh after he said that "But just so you know, the play won't go unnoticed!" He then grabbed a chicken leg and started eating it.

"That second reason…" Arianna crossed her arms.

"Huh?"

She sent a glare towards the bear "You said you had a second reason for coming here…"

"Oh! Right! The second reason! It's not because of this crappy food! That's for sure!"

This hurt Eliza deeply. "My food isn't c-crappy!"

"Anyways! My second reason for coming here… iiiiis! A _motive_!" He laughed loudly "You guys are getting along too well for my tastes!"

"Your taste suck if you don't like my food!" Eliza shouted weakly at him.

"Dammit… what's this motive?" Arti sighed.

"Weeell, I thought I should help you out here… and say…" He brought his claws out of his hands "There's a traitor working for me, hidden amongst you!"

The room, fell silent.

"And why would you so openly admit that?" David called out.

"Puhuhuhu…" Monokuma laughed "Because they have done something to piss me off! They tried to suggest a motive to me! And a lackluster one at that! So boring and typical for one of youse to come up with that… Anyway! Monokuma! Out!" And with that, he was gone.

"Great! He just had to ruin the mood…" Arianna was pretty mad now.

"Let's… just ignore that for now…" Nonam sighed "Who's up for doing the play…?"

"But I'm not that good at acting…" Chase rubbed the back of his head. "So I wouldn't be any good"

"It doesn't HAVE to be good. Just not boring!" Delilah said.

"Well you'll still need to remember all your lines…" Arianna said.

 _We continued eating while discussing who should get which role. Arianna of course volunteered for one of the leads, being the Ultimate Actor, no one said no. And, for Romeo, despite the person cast to play him not wanting to, Chase eventually caved in and agreed. Arianna didn't seem happy but eh. Can't win them all. With that, I returned to my room._

.

.

.

Monokuma was walking around the gym floor, seemingly impatient. "Grumble grumble…"

"God… don't sound so grumpy…" A voice said. The source was from one of the ten remaining students, who was leaning on a wall.

"I did what you wanted me to! I told them that there was a traitor amongst them! I don't know why you wanted to do that!" He didn't seem quite happy.

"Well… it could make the whole ordeal even more interesting! Now… you said I had to do something for you?"

"Yes! Someone has been a thorn in my side for too long! I don't know who it is however. They are doing a good job at staying hidden! Dammit!" He was getting even more angry.

The person smirked "And let me guess… You want me to, eliminate them…?"

"Yes! And do so with haste!" Monokuma started to get frustrated.

"I have to kill someone? That wasn't part of the deal! What if I get killed myself? Did you ever think of that?" The person was starting to get mad themselves "All I ask in return is that if I do live, I get a special prize!"

Monokuma stopped walking before turning towards the person. "What do you want?"

They smirked devilishly before whispering something.

"..." He remained silent for a good moment before nodding "You got yourself a deal! However, treason against me will result in being punished!"

The person laughed a little "Oh, I would do no such thing!" And with a drop of a smoke grenade, they were gone.

.

.

.

.

.

 _The days passed as we began to practice for our roles. I got Sir Montague, which doesn't seem to be a big role. Several days had passed, however, something seemed odd. There seemed to not only be a lot more tension, which was to be expected. But Monokuma hadn't showed himself in a few days. Heck, even the morning and night time announcements were void of him. He was planning something, maybe letting us do what we want for the time being…? Anyways… the show is going to be later tonight… and I have a bad feeling about this…_

.

.

.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

The morning announcement happened like usual, however, of course, Monokuma was absent from it.

Nonam got up from his bed and made his way to the cafeteria, where everyone was already there. And stuff was already going down. _Great_.

Chase was having an argument with Arianna "Even if I did memorize them. I'm not going to be in the play. You never once asked for us to be OK with this. You just thrust this upon us! Eh… thrust…"

"Head out of the gutter!" She yelled back "This is purely for entertainment purposes! And if you were just going to deny doing it, why did you memorize the lines anyways?"

"Because it's not like I had a choice!" He yelled back.

"P-please no fighting!" Eliza yelled out, but her voice went unnoticed to everyone but the writer.

"I'm just trying to do something to make everyone feel better!" Arianna yelled. She seemed like she just wanted to punch Chase in the face.

Suddenly…

 _WHAM_

Chase had been punched in the face and fell to the ground. Arianna looked on in shock as she thinks she just did that. However, it wasn't her.

"Shut up…" David shook his head. He shook his hand a little. "Just because it inconveniences you doesn't mean the rest of us don't want to do it…"

Chase quickly got up, rubbing the blood away from his mouth. "Don't act like you'll enjoy it!"

"As a matter of fact, I get to play someone who kills someone…" He grins. "Granted my character also dies, but eh, can't win them all. On the bright side, you get to kill me in the play…" David smirked "So, think of it as payback for me punching you…" And with that, David walked away.

"Dammit…" Chase said to no one in particular.

Eliza put her hands on her hips "You deserved it! You pointlessly started a fight that could have easily been avoided!"

After David had stopped the argument, everyone went back to eating. A little cheerier than earlier.

"Come on everyone! We will put on a great show for everyone watching!" Delilah called out.

"All one…" Arti sighed "Unless this whole thing really is being broadcasted…"

Delilah shrugged "It's probably the case! We just have to show them we haven't given up! If someone is watching, and it seems pretty obvious where we are! So someone needs to find us soon!"

"It might not be that easy…" Nonam sighed "Not to be a downer, but someone would have rescued us by now if that were the case…"

"Well we could always be here for their entertainment…" Xi chuckled to himself. "Maybe they are sick fucks like me who would gladly watch one of these! I wonder if I can get this on recording for when I get out!" He laughed a little more.

"If you get out…" Chase sighed "So far, none of us getting out seems plausible…"

"But we can't just give up…" Larissa pouted. "I think Delilah is right. Someone will find us."

"Y-yeah! No way they would let this keep… going. Right?" Eliza asked nervously.

"Well" Chase stood up, sighing again. "I gotta go finish memorizing my lines…"

"Oh? I thought you didn't want to do it" Arianna smirked smugly.

"Whatevs…" Was his last remark before leaving.

"Yeah…" Delilah started to think "He's going to die soon…!"

"Delilah!" Marisa was taken aback by her remark.

"Whaaat? It's truuuue!" She giggled. "Anyways! I better go check up on the costume room! There's something I need to do!" And with that, she also left.

Marisa let out a deep sigh "What's her problem…" There was a few moments of silence "I should go make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. Who knows what's going on in her head…" With that, she also left.

"Ah, we seem to be losing more people left and right…" Xi grinned, before standing up, and leaving, himself.

 _Soon, the others also disbanded and I returned to my room. So, tonight's the play? I know I should be happy and I am. But I'm also worried. Something is going to happen. Especially with all that tension._

.

.

.

Someone walked into the training room, making their way to the room in the back. They looked around, searching for the object they wanted. Soon, they found it. They opened the case and smirked. _This is it…_ they thought to themselves. _I have to do this…_

.

.

.

Night was already upon everyone. Time passes by fast when the writer doesn't say what happens.

Nonam was making his way to the fourth floor, he had already eaten his meal, although alone since no one else had showed up, stray for one person, who was David. But he hadn't stayed long. When Nonam reached the fourth floor of the building, he was greeted by the sight of several costumes out in the hallway. Probably either those that were needed or the opposite. However, granted that the costume room also connected with the theatre room and the Salon type of room, it would come at no surprise that the needed ones were still in the room.

He took a few steps and stepped inside the costume. Several people were already wearing their costumes while other waited for the changing room to open up.

"Fuck this!" Delilah called out. "I'm just going to change in the open.

"How about you don't…" David sighed.

"I mean, if you waaant to-" Chase started to say before being glared at by literally everyone. "Alright! Alright!"

Delilah crossed her arms and pouted "Meanies…"

Soon, the door opened and a shy little Eliza walked out. "Sorry it took so long…" She quickly got out of there and made her way to the salon, where Larissa was probably waiting.

"Nonam!" Arianna frowned "Why are you just now showing up? You should have been here twenty minutes ago!"

"Well I was doing other stuff. And plus, the only time said was an hour from now. I'm sure an hour is enough to prepare for the play." He replied.

"Well… yeah… but we are a little behind schedule…" She sighed.

Nonam smiled a little before shaking his head "And why's that?"

Arianna frowned "Larissa never had to do so many people's hair in a row. And she can't exactly do it on a whim based on what she thinks would work."

Nonam continued smiled "Everything will go great. It's not exactly like we have to start at any time. We don't have a real audienc-"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"You better not even think of starting later!" Monokuma yelled out. "I have a lot of people waiting for this! Mostly me, but you get the point!" He smirked. "So don't you dare make us wait!" And with that, he was gone like the wind. Except there wasn't really any wind inside.

"Someone seems excited…" Nonam sighed, but went back to smiling "You put a lot of effort into this. So I believe you can do it!"

"Thank you" She smiled back before walking away.

Nonam looked around for what he was supposed to wear and grabbed it. Everyone was trying their best, so of course he had to.

.

.

.

 _At random interval between the acts, we take small breaks to give ourselves a break._

Nonam was sitting on a chair between the first and second act, looking at everyone else. Delilah was seemingly very pumped. A lot of people were. Although a few people were off. Arti seemed bored out of his mind, and Eliza seemed to be thinking about other things. Something was probably on her mind. Nonam got up to go talk to her, but Xi stopped him.

"I don't think she wants to be bothered…" He said, somewhat coldly.

"But she seems troubled." Nonam said.

Xi smirked "Who's the expert over here? I'm pretty sure I am!"

"Last I checked, you went crazy yourself…" He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, however, I still kept my talent!" Xi shrugged a little. "And I can tell she doesn't want to be bothered. So I recommend you leave her alone." With that, he left.

Nonam looked over at Eliza and sighed. Something was up...

.

.

.

The rest of play goes along pretty well and everyone is having fun. Hell, Chase was pretty smug about 'killing' David.

Though… someone was wrong…

"Shit…" Arianna mumbled "Where is _she_? I know she barely had any roles but I included this in her list of roles. It's just a small one. We can't start the scene without her. Well, I mean we can but it would feel weird…"

"Wait, who's missing…?" Nonam asked.

"Eliza is missing…" She said, cursing again, but this time under her breath.

He shook his head "I'll go check on her…" With that, he left the stage room and went to look for Eliza. On first inspection, she wasn't in the costume room. But was probably in the changing room. He knocked on it and received no response. _Guess I'll check… the salon. Larissa isn't there at the moment because she is needed elsewhere, basically the stage._ Nonam took a few steps towards the salon and slowly opened the door.

.

.

.

She was sitting down in one of the chairs, looking at the mirror. She looked to still be in deep thought.

"Hey… Eliza? Are you OK?" Nonam asked.

She turned towards him and nodded "Yeah. Just thinking about stuff Monokuma has said recently…"

"Which part?" He continued asking questions.

"Well a lot of things. About the memory thing. It made Tristan want to talk to Gabriel… do that must mean they knew each other beforehand.?" She said sadly. "It would also explain why people would be watching…"

"Yeah, to watch former students kill each other…" Nonam sighed.

"Yeah…"

Nonam wanted to change the subject but soon remembered what he was doing there "Huh... You are up, by the way"

"Oh!" She exclaimed, getting up. "I'll go then!" With that, she was gone.

"..."

.

.

.

The rest of the play went great and once it was done, everyone left to go do their own things.

Nonam was walking back to his room, although someone was behind him.

"Hey, you didn't think of leaving me behind?" Arianna smiled.

"No, I just thought that you were going to stay in the room." He smiled back. He stopped walking in front of the library door, or, at least where it would have been, was it on this floor.

"Well I did start cleaning up, however Arti volunteered to do the rest." She started to think about what to say next. "Why didn't you try for a bigger role?"

"Hmm? Oh, I wouldn't be good at acting. I didn't want to ruin the show." He shrugged.

"Oh… well…" She said sadly.

Nonam was going to say something when suddenly, something caught his attention. A low squeaking noise started to play in his ear. He was trying to understand what it was before another sound started playing. A screeching noise

"ARIANNA!" He called out. Quickly grabbing her hand and bolting from where they were.

Suddenly, out from where the library door would be, the wall particularly erupted and a door came crashing out, hitting the wall that Nonam and Arianna were in front. The sound it made was a crashing sound.

"What the fuck was that?" Arianna called out.

"The elevator fell…" Nonam mumbled. He ran over to it to check if anyone was inside. "No one is here!"

"We need to check the other floors!" Arianna called out, running towards the stairs. "I'll check the third floor!"

"Shit…" Nonam sighed before running towards the stairs. He climbed up them and make it to the second floor. In the distance he saw someone who appeared to be injured. "Shit…" He mumbled and ram over to them. When he got to that person, he realized it was Larissa. "Are you OK?"

She slowly started to get up from the rumble that had fallen on her. She had been passing the library door when it fell. "Y-Yeah…" She said weakly.

Nonam helped her get her onto her feet. "Huh…" He looked at her side, which was bleeding.

She saw where he was looking and noticed the blood. "What…?" She said weakly "I'll get Delilah… she is a nurse right?" She weakly walked away.

No, she was a nurse in a play

"Larissa! Don't strain yourself!"

Xi walked into the hallway "What the hell is going on here?"

"Xi! Keep an eye on her! I need to check something!" He ran off without saying anything else.

Xi was going to stop him, but glanced at Larissa, who had collapsed on the ground.

"Didn't you die…?" She asked Xi, referring to the fact that he played Mercutio.

.

.

.

Nonam ran to the third floor and glanced down the hallway. Arianna was walking back towards the stairs.

"Nothing is here! Let's get to the fourth floor!" She passed him, walking up the stairs.

Nonam was on edge. He followed her upstairs.

Arianna was already where the elevator should have been.

Dammit! What the hell is going on!

He ran towards her, however, he passed by the art room and received a chilling sensation.

W-what is this feeling?

He took a few steps towards the door to the art room.

No…

He grabbed the door knob and slowly turned it.

There shouldn't be any but art stuff in here… right?"

The door slowly opened.

But I forgot, just what kind of game we are playing…

.

.

.

The walls, were not only splattered with the normal paint. There was now fresh blood. A statue lay on the ground, broken and knocked over. On the floor, several severed fingers were seen. About maybe five fingers were visible. Now, time for the body. The body was covered in slashes and cuts. Not to mention several bruises, obvious signs of a fight. There was a giant blood gush on their stomach. On the right side, a little under where the heart would be on the left side, was a cut, a deep cut. Blood was pouring out of that, however, there seemed to be an unnatural blood stain around that wound. Further up, the victim had a peaceful expression on their face. The victim… was the Ultimate Swordwielder, Arti Fyshial.

.

.

.

A loud scream filled the room, not from Nonam. But from someone else. They were in the room before Nonam got there and had froze in sudden terror.

"What the fuck!" Marisa cried out, covering her mouth.

"M-Marisa?" Nonam said, looking at her "When did you get here?"

Her face was still pure terror, she still couldn't comprehend what had happened.

Nonam was going to ask a question when suddenly…

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

 _What? A body discovery announcement? That means someone else must have walked in…_

Nonam turned to look at the door, however, no one else had walked in, only him and Marisa were there.

The monitor screen lit up to reveal Monokuma's face "A body as been discovered! Where? Eh, who cares! Find it yourself! Monokuma! Out!" And with that, the screen turned off.

 _It was true… Arti was truly dead… there was no coming back… and one of us killed him…_

.

Nine Students Remaining...


	9. Chapter 4: Traitor Among Us- Deadly Life

Nonam and Marissa stood there silently, simply looking at Arti's body.

"Why would someone do this…" She finally said. "Dammit!"

"Hey Nonam!" Arianna said running in. "Did you hear the body… announcement…" She had noticed the body and finally understand why it had played. Arti was dead. "What the…"

"I… I don't know why this happened…" Marisa mumbled.

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Ah! Don't get down like that! Get down later! I'm here for obvious reasons!" He took something seemingly out of nowhere "TA-DA! It's the Monokuma File! Read it to your heart's content!"

"Hey!" Nonam crossed his arms "Why didn't you say where the body in the announcement?"

"Oh? Well, that would ruin the suspense if I did that!" He laughed a little.

"What suspence?" Marisa asked angrily.

"Huh… why… the suspense for the people who haven't seen the body!" He said. "What else would it be?"

"You are hiding something and I can't prove what it is…" Nonam sighed.

"Anyways! Good luck with the investigation!" And with that, Monokuma vanished.

Nonam looked over at the crime scene.

 _I guess I have no choice but to investigate… again… for the fourth time…_

"I'll go gather everyone else…" Arianna sighed and left the room, leaving Marisa and Nonam there.

"We should read the file…" Marisa mumbled.

"Yeah…" Nonam said as he opened the Monokuma File #4

.

 **Monokuma File #4**

.

 **The victim is the Ultimate Sword Wielder, Arti Fyshal. He was found with missing fingers and several cuts and bruises. A deep wound was on his right side of the chest. He also seems to have an injury on his back.**

 **The cause of death was by a foreign object piercing his skin. He died seconds after said object struck. The time of death is around 9:30 pm.**

.

"Hmm…" Nonam started to think. "It's currently 9:45… his body is recently killed…"

 _Who could have done this…_

He walked towards the body but stopped when he noticed stuff on the ground. "So it would seem his fingers were cut off, but why would they have to go to the effort to do so…?"

"Well if they wanted to torture him…" Marisa suggested with a sad tone.

"Why would they need to torture him?" Nonam started to think.

Marisa also started to think "It might have to do with the motive… of one of us being the traitor… It could be someone thought that Arti was the traitor…"

"But that would mean that they suspected Arti. And if he was killed…" Nonam kept thinking.

"Granted my theory could be off!" Marisa said. She didn't want Nonam to think too much.

Nonam looked around the blood and noticed a distinct trail of blood leading to where Arti's current body was. "So, after he was killed, he might have been dragged. The blood trail supports that theory… however…"

 _No, it's too soon to tell…_

"We should check the body…" Marisa sighed.

"Yeah…" Nonam agreed and walked over to the body. There were several cut wounds and bruises. "Eh… just like Arti to not go without a fight. It seemed he was for sure fighting back. But…"

 _Then how did the killer get the jump on him? This doesn't point to sneak attack…_

"Well I think I found the fatal wound…" Marisa said, pointing to the giant deep stab wound he has. "It seems to go all the way through his body…"

"Yeah… you are right… Probably a knife or something like that…" Nonam thought to himself some more.

"Although…" Marisa said. "This seems to be a weird way to have a blood stain. Why does it go so high up? If someone had stabbed him, the blood shouldn't have splattered like that…"

"Yeah…" Nonam got into a deeper thought.

 _So why is it even like that?_

Nonam glanced over at Arti's shirt and gulped. It was covered in blood, so one could imagine the cuts and wounds that were going to be there. He took a deep breath and lifted up his shirt, but actually saw barely any cuts "What… There should be a more severe injury…"

"Well the blood could have just dripped down…" Marisa suggested.

"Well, I mean, yeah…"

 _But once again, to form so weirdly?_

"Monokuma said something about a back injury… should we check that out too…?" Nonam asked.

"If… if we want to be thorough with our investigation, then yeah, we have to…" She replied.

Nonam and Marisa both moved Arti's body so that they could see his back.

"Hmm…?" Arti's back had two injuries. The stab wound from earlier. But, another one, this one didn't seem like a stab wound. But it was almost impossible to tell what it was. "It seems like he did have another injury…"

Marisa wasn't listening and had unsheathed Arti's Katana. "Oh!" She exclaimed "There's blood on the tip! So it must have been used!"

Nonam looked at the tip of the katana and nodded. He looked over and Marisa's hand. "Huh… I think you covered the handle in blood…"

"Huh? My hands weren't blood-" She saw her hand and dropped the katana "T-that must have came from the katana!" She exclaimed.

"From the katana itself…" Nonam started to think. "I think that's it for the body…" He looked around the room as he had noticed blood all over the walls. "This helps make the struggle theory sound correct."

"Not just that…" Marisa pointed out "But look at all these art tools, they aren't how they were before… they used to be neatly stacked… Although that could have just been someone using them…" She sighed.

"Well that's true and all, but I don't think someone using the art room would have knocked down a statue for no reason…" Nonam pointed out.

"I guess you are right… it must be hard to think at a time like this…" She sighed.

"Yeah…" He looked around and noticing something. "Is… something under that dumpster?"

"Yeah! I think I see it!" Marisa ran over to the dumpster and grabbed whatever it was that was there. "Dammit! More blood!" She tossed it onto the ground.

 _It was… a gun?_

"What's a gun doing here?!" Nonam called out. "There shouldn't be any guns in this school!"

"Beats me… but it was also bloody…" Marisa sighed.

Nonam grabbed the gun "It does… and it doesn't seem like the blood came from your hand…" He opened the chamber and was surprised. "All six bullets are still in here… weird…"

"All six of them are there…?" Marisa asked. She took a look at the chamber and yeah. No bullets were missing. "That's strange… why take a gun and hide it under a dumpster…"

"Maybe the person didn't have the chance to use it…" Nonam sighed.

 _But only one person would have not had the time to use it, but even so, why was it under the dumpster._

"I don't think there's much else to explore in this room…" Nonam said.

"Hey, what about the closet?" Marisa said "What if some equipment were missing?"

"Oh… yeah… I guess…" Nonam sighed, he didn't want to stay in this room longer than he had to…

He walked over to the closet and opened it.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

 _What?_

.

.

.

Blood was dripping at the bottom of the closet, dripping from who was in it. The body, was not on the floor of the closet. No, it was much more brutal than that. Their legs were being held up by two knives each, deeply stuck into their legs. Next, they had two knives aligned with one another vertically, stabbed into the torso. There was a stab wound right where the heart would be. Next, there were four more knives visible. They were stabbed into the arms. Two for each arm. The victim's shoulder seems to be severely injured, but not from the knives. Finally, what seemed like the final knife, was stabbed mercilessly into the victims neck. The victim's face, was not a restless face. It was a face of pure shock. The victim themselves, was none other than the Ultimate Blacksmith, David Talon.

.

.

.

"What…?" Nonam said, pretty much in shock.

 _What… what is this? A… second victim?_

.

" _Hey!" Nonam crossed his arms "Why didn't you say where the body in the announcement?"_

" _Oh? Well, that would ruin the suspense if I did that!" He laughed a little._

" _What suspence?" Marisa asked angrily._

" _Huh… why… the suspense for the people who haven't seen the body!" He said. "What else would it be?"_

" _You are hiding something and I can't prove what it is…" Nonam sighed._

.

 _Dammit! This was what he was alluding to! If everyone but David had showed up, we would have known something was up…_

Suddenly, that sound rang.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

Nonam looked around the room, but still, only he and Marisa were seen.

 _What is going on!_

The screen lit up to reveal Monokuma's face "Hello everyone! A body has been discovered! Please report in the art room on the fourth floor! Monokuma! Out!" And the screen turned off.

Marisa and Nonam remained in silence for a long bit, when suddenly, the door to the art room burst open, Chase having opened it "WHY WERE THERE TWO BODY ANNOuncements…" His arms fell down to his side when he saw the body of not only Arti, but David too. "Two… victims…?"

Eliza squeezed through the gap between Chase and the door and ran over to the scene "W-what happened? Why are two people dead?" Eliza looked like she wanted to vomit.

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Oh no! How terrible! A second person died! Who could have ever seen this coming? Puhuhuhu!" Monokuma laughed.

"Dammit!" Chase called out. "Why did two people have to die?"

"Because why not?" Monokuma shrugged.

The rest of the people who were missing, Arianna, Delilah, Larissa, and Xi, showed up.

"What's wrong with… Arti?" Larissa said weakly.

Delilah took a deep sigh "I tried to patch her up, however she is still a little on edge from the injury…"

"Hmm… It would appear a second victim as been found, how… unfortunate…" Xi smirked devilishly.

"You sick fuck…" Arianna sighed and passed him to get to Nonam "So first Arti and now David… And for David to be in such… a position…" She shook her head. We don't have time to be worrying about this…"

"Hey! Monokuma!" Chase called out. "What if there are two killers! How would that be fair?"

"Hmmm? Two killers? Oh, well if that happens, as long as you vote for one of them! It will be OK! I can only punish one person so the other can get away with it, however, they won't be able to leave. Since everyone else lived. Either way, a punishment needs to be involved!" He took something out of seemingly nowhere. "This is an addition to the fourth Monokuma File!" He handed it over to Nonam.

He turned it on and looked at it "This just says Monokuma File #5…"

Monokuma went silent for a bit before swearing under his breath and vanishing.

Suddenly, the realization set in. "Arti…?" Larissa had regained some senses and weakly ran over to him. "Arti! Wake up!"

"I don't believe he'll be waking up…" Xi smirked. "He's dead!"

"No… Arti wouldn't… die…" She was on the verge of crying.

Suddenly.

Bear again.

"Oh, right, I have to fix her up. Can't have a third victim!" He grabbed Larissa and dragged her away "Dr Killgood is going to get her better."

 _Yeah… that doesn't make me feel better… I should probably read the file now..._

.

 **Monokuma File #5**

.

 **The victim is the Ultimate Blacksmith, David Talon. His body was discovered in the art room. He was pinned to a closet by several knives, none of which delivered the fatal attack. The fatal wound appears to be a sudden stab wound to his heart. He died instantly. Time of death is unknown.**

.

"Hmm…" Nonam looked up from the file at the body. "I should investigate everything I can…" He approached David's body.

"Wow! So maaaany knives!" Delilah giggled. "Whoever did it was probably really mental! Or angry! Who knows?" She shrugged smuggly.

Eliza looked at both Delilah and Xi "You seem to have no souls…" She said shyly.

Delilah pouted "This is my copping mechanic! Don't dish it until you try it…" She walked out of the room, no longer interested in the body.

 _But she did have at least one good point. Why so many knives? Was it solely to pin him to the closet wall? And was why was the murder weapon not here. Unless one of those knives caused the fatal wound and was simply reused… however, it's not the same size…_

Nonam opened up the maroon coat that David had been wearing recently and he was confirmed with where the knives came from. "So it appears to be David's own knives. I figured as much…"

 _But only eleven knives were present. There should have been at least fifteen…_

"I hate to say it… but I think that's it for what I can find here…" Nonam said.

Marisa was looking through some other things in the room "I got the area covered, so if you need to investigate elsewhere, you don't have to worry about here!"

Arianna sighed a little "I'm going to head to the library. It falling couldn't have been a coincidence…" She quickly left.

"Meanwhile, I have some rooms to check out…" Xi smirked, leaving.

Nonam was about to leave when Chase walked up to him "I know I'm not going to be much help, but I'll tag along with you…"

"I-I guess I will too… not like I have anything else to do…" Eliza sighed.

"You two don't really have to…" Nonam said.

 _I really want to work on this alone…_

"Bullshit, I need to start being useful!" Chase crossed his arms. "We are at only eight people left, so we all need to pull our own weight"

 _Yeah… there's no use fighting this…_

"Alright… I guess. Well I'm heading to the third floor. There's a certain training room I need to check out…"

The trio made it down to the third floor and entered the training room, where someone was waiting.

Delilah was rummaging through some weapons. "Dammit, I can't find anything useful…"

"Huh… Delilah… what are you doing?" Nonam asked.

She quickly stood up straight, almost freaking out "I'M NOT LOOKING FOR A WEAPON FOR THE NEXT MURDER!"

"Sure…" Nonam sighed.

"Don't tell me you are wasting time in this place searching for weapons" Chase crossed his arms.

"Hey, if you think I'm being useless, I'm not. I found something in the back which… may intrigue you" She giggled.

"What is it?" Chase asked.

"Go find out yourself" She shrugged smugly before walking away. Seemingly holding something but keeping it hidden.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Eliza said.

The three of them walked over to the door in the back. Nonam opened the door and instead, was lying a black case.

"Oh… could this be…?" Nonam rushed over to it and opened.

 _It's what I thought._

They were all looking at an empty gun case.

"I-is that a gun case?" Eliza squeaked a little.

"Yeah… we found a gun at the crime scene because it was unused…" Nonam said.

"What makes you say that?" Chase crossed his arms.

"Well all the bullets were still in the barrel…" Nonam said.

"Someone could have just reloaded the gun…" He sighed "Aren't you supposed to be the Ultimate Detective?"

"No"

"Oh..."

"Is there anything else in here worthwhile…?" Eliza said, trying to get the investigation moving along.

"From what I can tell… nothing has been taken or used recently…" Nonam let out a sigh. "We should probably head to the Library, and then the victims rooms.

"Y-you explore the victims rooms after they die?" Eliza did not like the sound of that.

Nonam let out a sigh "It's to find evidence… Now we should head out. Arianna is probably waiting for us…"

"Yeah, wasting time here won't do us any good…" Chase started to leave the room. "All this evidence and I don't think we are any closer to figuring out who the killer is…"

Nonam followed behind him "Although there's always some evidence who points towards the killer. I don't think any of us would be able to perform the perfect crime…" He sighed sadly.

 _No… someone here probably would be able to… and I have to watch out for them…_

.

.

.

After much walking and talking, they soon made it to the library. Arianna was waiting for them at the entrance "So I didn't find somewhere where they could have hidden but I found the elevator buttons broken…" She sighed, walking into the library.

The three of them walked in, witnessing the horrible sight that was the destroyed libary.

"Damn…" Chase mumbled. He walked over to where Arianna was standing. She was in front of four books, all seemingly ripped out.

"Hmm…" Nonam thought "I… I don't think this would be enough to make the elevator crash like that…"

"That's what I thought… I'm heading back up to the fourth floor to check something. I found something interesting there. Once you are done with this floor, come upstairs…" She quickly left.

"Hey… Nonam…" Chase said, picking something up from the ground "I think I figured out where those four other knives went…" Stuck into the wall by the books, four knives were piercing four cords.

"Hmm… They could have used it to mess up the elevator. But still, that wouldn't have the elevator fall" He started to think even more "A lot of things don't add up… We should go to Arti's room… Maybe we could find something…"

"Y-yeah…" Eliza agreed. "Did we ever see his motive video…?" She asked shyly.

"No we didn't, but I highly doubt it has anything to do with the case…" Nonam walked out of the library.

"I think we should check it just to make sure. You never know…" Chase said.

Nonam let out a sigh.

 _They aren't going to let this go, aren't they?_

"Fine… but don't get any ideas…"

All three of them made it to Arti's room, except it was already open.

"Heh… Xi's probably already in there…" Nonam shook his head. However, upon entering the room, no one was there. "That's odd, it's not like Xi to leave a door open like this…"

"Maybe the door was already open before anyone came down?" Chase suggested.

"Could be…" Nonam sighed.

 _Still too soon to come up with any comclusions…_

Eliza and Chase started to look around the room for anything of use.

Nonam looked around the wall of swords that Arti had.

 _Hmm… nothing seems to be missing, and nothing seems to be recently used. However, I feel like something is off anyways…_

"Well, I found his motive video…" Chase took it out of drawer and put it on the table. It only had the number one. So most likely Arti watched it once and then stopped caring about it. Chase pressed the play button as the video started to play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Arti Fyshal. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Marissa Campbell! What is with her? She is a journalist, and we all know how much they love a good story. But what if there are no interesting stories around? Well, let's just say that she finds a way to make an interesing story. No matter what it takes" He laughed before the video ended.

.

"Well, he got Marisa's video. There's only a small portion of videos that remain unknown…" Chase sighed. "It didn't really help, but it was worth the look into…"

"S-should we head over… to David's room now?" Eliza asked.

"Yeah, if there's nothing else in here, it would probably be best…" Nonam headed out of the room and went towards David's room. That one, was closed. He turned the doorknob to see if it would open, and it did. So Xi had probably gone here.  
He hadn't just gone there. He was still there. "Oh, what took you so long to show up?" Xi smirked smuggly.

"Sorry, but you aren't exactly the most important on my list." Nonam went further into the room.

"Aww, I'm hurt…"

"Hey, Xi. Did you open Arti's door?" Chase asked.

"No, I haven't even been to his room yet…" Xi shrugged. "Why ever do you ask?"

Chase started to think "Because his door was already open when we went there…"

"Nope, not me…" Xi smirked. "I'm polite and close my door. It's not like I'm in a rush to get anywhere…"

"Oh!" Eliza had found something lying on the ground "It's…" It was a piece of paper that was folded. She opened it and started to read "It's a note…"

.

 **Hey David, after the play is done, can you meet me in the art room? There's something I need to talk to you about**

.

 **~Arti**

.

"Huh… something's strange about this letter…" Nonam started to think.

 _Why would he even sign it with his name? Unless… it's not him who wrote it and he was being framed. But why is he dead now?_

"I think that's all there is here for now…" Nonam said.

"S-should we meet up again with Arianna?" Eliza said. "Maybe she found something else?"

"Yeah… The whole elevator thing intrigues me…" Nonam said.

All three of them left the room and made their way to the fourth floor, where Arianna was.

"What did you find…" Nonam asked.

"Well, for one…" Arianna pointed at the wall "Nothing is really forming this wall expect for a thin material and some wallpaper. Someone seemed to have broken in… Not just that…" She pointed at the sturdy cord that was used to hold up the elevator.

"It… snapped?" Chase looked at it, almost falling into the elevator shaft.

"It would seem like a lot of force was applied…" Arianna sighed.

"We should head ba-"

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

"Or not…" Nonam sighed.

The monitor lit up to reveal Monokuma's face "You guys are really starting to bore me! Please! Make your way to the elevator on the first floor! Oh! And whoever broke the library elevator, will have to rebuild it themselves! Using nothing but toothpicks and their feet!" The monitor turned off.

The four students at the broken door sighed and made their way towards the elevator on the first floor. Although they didn't expect to find a certain person there.

Larissa was leaning weakly against the wall. The colour to her face had returned and her injury seemed to be gone. But she still seemed very weak. And not just that, she had tears running down her eyes.

Eliza ran over to her to try and comfort her. "Are you doing better?"

"Y-yeah…" She said sadly. "But… Arti…"

Suddenly, the elevator doors opened. And everyone walked in. Eliza almost had to drag in Larissa.

 _Why… why are we doing this again? This is the fourth time we are doing. Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? Do people really want out that bad? To have to kill? And why kill two people? Only one was required… Well, I guess in the end, to escape, you have to sacrifice everyone else. The most selfish act. Soon, the elevator stopped moving, and the doors._ _We stepped out to see what awaited us…_

The podiums were there for them, empty. Although eight of the places had images. One for Catrina, with two musical notes crossed against each other. One for Christopher with an X across it. One for Terra with an skull covering. One of Jenna with an x on her face. One with Gabriel with a x on his face. One of Tristan with an x across his face. One of Arti with two small swords crossed against each other. And one of David, with an X across his face, although it looked like it was bleeding.

 _Everyone… slowly walked over to the podiums, as did I. The mood was definitely tense…_

When everyone settled it, it was finally time to start

 _Two people had just been killed. Arti, was kinda an asshole. But doesn't mean he didn't try for our survival._

Several pictures appeared.

One of Arti reaching for his Katana in his sheath. The picture was redded out.

One of Eliza wearing a chef hat too big for her.

One of Terra, with her arms crossed, looking the other way. The picture was redded out

One of David playing around with a knife. The picture was redded out.

One of Jenna adjusting her glasses, clearly flipping someone off. The picture was redded out.

 _David was discovered to have killed people previously, however, he never made a move on us. It seems like he didn't want us dead either._

One of Arianna rolling her eyes.

One of Marisa writing things down in a notebook.

One of Tristan holding a mouse in his hands. The picture was redded out.

One of Catrina listening to headphones. The picture was redded out.

One of Chase with his hands behind his back, acting chill.

One of Christopher looking worried. The picture was redded out.

 _We don't even know how many killers there are! But one thing's for sure, they are here..._

One of Larissa holding her hands together.

One of Xi looking like pure malice with his crazy eyes.

One of Delilah with an adorable face, trying to be seductive.

One of Gabriel, covering his mouth, in deep thought. The picture was redded out.

One of Nonam, right in the middle, looking confident.

 _And I will figure out who that is in this trial of life and death!_

.

.

.

Class Trial

In Session

.

.

.

"Alright, so should we establish what we are dealing with right now…?" Chase started up the conversation.

"What do you mean by that?" Marisa asked him.

"Well are we dealing with one killer or two. That could drastically change the course of this trial" He replied.

"It might be too early for that…" Nonam said.

Xi chuckled a little. "We should probably go over if the two victims are involved with each other. Like what if they met up before they were killed. Who knows?"

"Well that's what we are to find out…" Arianna said.

"Well we already know why David went there? And possibly why Arti went there…" Chase said "Right Nonam?"

"Yeah…" He said.

 _The reason why they both went there was because…_

"We found a note in David's room, apparently signed by Arti, asking him to meet him in the art room on the fourth floor after the play" Nonam said. "However…"

"However, what?" Marisa asked.

"There was something weird about the letter in general…" Nonam said.

 _Well… there were two things strange…_

"Not only did it have Arti's name, but Arti himself had not been given a letter. We could assume that someone was trying to frame Arti for the murder of David, however, why did Arti end up dead too?" Nonam thought to himself.

 _Yeah, once I figure out some of these oddities, things should be clearer_.

"Well, I mean…" Chase started "Arti could have still honestly been the one to have sent the note…"

Marisa shook her head with a sigh "Aren't you listening. If he did write the note, he wouldn't have written his name. It was clearly to lure someone in…"

"W-well it doesn't exactly have to be to lure him in… what if Arti just… wanted to talk to David…?" Eliza asked shyly.

"Then why meet up in the art room…" Larissa joined into the conversation. "They could have just met up in his room"

"They could have, but if it was truly Arti who wrote the note… he wanted full control of the situation…" Arianna said "I also don't think he was there by coincidence. He kinda shooed me off from the fourth floor and said he would take care of the cleaning"

"So it does seem like he knew something was up. So he must have actually been the one to write the letter…" Chase said "But still, why write his name in the first place?"

Xi smirked "Could it be, that Arti thought that whatever plan he had going was going to work so he could steal the note back from David? Maybe he simply wrote his name to try and gain David's trust. Or maybe at least his curiosity…."

"Well this isn't anywhere…" Chase sighed "Let's just assume Arti wrote the letter for now, but we won't be able to decide on anything else before…"

"Yes, let's move on to something else…" Marisa sighed.

"Well, something was odd about Arti's room when I went to it…" Nonam said.

 _Yeah… the thing odd about his room is…_

"His door was… open…" Nonam said.

"And Xi who had gone downstairs claimed to have went for David's room first…" Chase said.

Xi shrugged a little "Well, I've already seen his room so I was familiar with it. I should have noticed if something was off."

"And was something off?" Chase asked.

"Besides that note Eliza found, everything seemed normal…" He replied.

"But if he didn't go to Arti's room, then someone else must have broken in. And that still leaves only you… Xi." Nonam said.

Xi let out chuckle. "Well, you might not be aware of this. But someone, had the key to his room… he entrusted someone with a spare, so… that person could have very well have done it…"

 _Someone Arti would give a spare key to…?_

"Well the only person I could think of would be Larissa. But even then I don't think Arti would just give her a k-" Nonam was interrupted.

Larissa spoke up "Yeah… he did give me a key to his room… in case anything ever happened to him. However… I got mad at him one day and gave him back the key… If you want to believe I still have the key, then sure."

Nonam started to think to himself "No, I don't think it was you. Or at least, you are not the only one to have been able to access his room…"

 _There should have been at least one more person with the possibility to enter his room that isn't Arti himself… yes… that person…_

"I'm going to assume that the person who made the key was David, since it's within his domain of expertise…" Nonam said.

"Arti did mention that David had made the key…" Larissa sighed. "But that doesn't explain why they are both dead…"

 _No… it doesn't… still things don't add up._

"Hey… call me an idiot… but…" Chase started.

"Alright! You're an idiot!" Delilah smiled smuggled.

"Hey I didn't mean to actually call me one!" Chase yelled at her "Anyways, what if someone had broken into Arti's room and took the note he had received to hide the fact that he had received one in the first place?"

 _!_

"That's… very likely to have occured…" Nonam said. "And they only left the note David received for us to at least think that Arti planned something…"

"Dammit!" Delilah mumbled "Now I have to take the stupid remark back!"

"Don't sound so disappointed" Chase sighed

"For now we can't deduce who could have done it…" Nonam sighed.

"Well hopefully talking about the crime scene will clear up a few things" Arianna said.

"We could definitely deduce that a fight happened…" Nonam said.

"We all know how that turned out…" Marisa said sadly.

.

"I do have something to say, however…" Xi smirked.

"Please don't try and do your usual thing." Marisa shook her head.

"What? I would never!" Xi gasped.

Chase pointed his finger at Xi "That's all you ever do!"

"Where's your proof that there even was a fight?" Xi said. "Arti was the only one that had injuries that showed sign of a fight…" He smirked to himself "And David only had the final blow. including the knives stabbed into him. However those were probably added after he died! So, all injuries inflicted to Arti could simply be, torture…"

"Well…" Chase started to think "I mean…"

"I don't think there really is any other proof!" Xi smirked

.

"Well if you look at the state of the room. It was obvious that some fight had gone on. Things were tipped over, which could be normal. However…" Nonam started "There was a tipped over statue that seemed pretty secure to the ground before. But now it was lying on the ground. That probably means Arti struggled."

"Yeah! He wouldn't go out without a fight" Larisa glared at Xi.

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure you were 100% on the case…" Xi smirked.

"What's your end goal here?" Chase crossed his arms.

"Well, someone else, beside the killer, probably has a high chance of knowing what happened" Xi said. "I'm trying to find that person…"

"And why is that?" Chase asked.

Xi let out a sigh "Did you already forget about the motive?"

"Y-you mean the traitor?" Eliza said.

"Precisely. I'm sure this so called traitor would know a lot about what's happening…" Xi said.

"Well we just lost two people… so…" Larissa starting talking.

"Are you implying that one of them was the traitor?" Xi smirked.

Larissa seemed a little angry at Xi "Well… David could have been. He's already killed people before!"

"Hey! Monokuma!" Delilah called out. "Tell us, is the traitor still alive?"

"The traitor? Who ever said there was a traitor?" He tilted his body.

"YOU DID!" Chase yelled out.

"Oh! Maybe I did. Whoopsie! Slip of the tongue!" Monokuma laughed "But yes! The traitor is still very much alive!"

"Damn, what a waste" Delilah pouted "Oh well! Moving on!"

"She sure was sad…" Chase said sarcastically.

"Let's… get back to the subject at hand…" Marisa said. "So, Arti was definitely struggling and it doesn't seem to be torture… but… even then? Why was his fingers cut off?"

 _His fingers? They were probably cut off because…_

"His fingers were probably cut of so he couldn't hold his katana." Nonam started "In total, five fingers were cut off. Leaving the two thumbs and three fingers left!"

"It would almost be impossible for someone to hold a katana, let alone fight with one…" Arianna said.

"But, Arti probably tried nonetheless…"

 _Yeah… he did… and this is proof_

Nonam looked up at everyone "His katana handle was covered in an excessive amount of blood, had his fingers been cut off, he should have dropped it immediately. That would have left the handle with way less bloo-"

"Was there blood on the handle before?" Xi smirked.

"Before what?" Nonam asked.

"Before you noticed it, of course…" Xi was up to something.

Nonam frowned a little "I'm not sure what you are implying…"

"Oh… it's nothing… Anyways, can we all agree that David was the one to cause those injuries…" Xi pointed out. "A knife could have been used to cut them off without slashing leaving other marks. And that would also explain all the small cuts Arti had received…"

"Yes, it would…" Marisa said.

"But why was David going for his fingers?" Larissa asked. "If he could have done that, he would have went in for the kill…"

Xi shrugged "Perhaps David had no intention to kill. Whoever did this wanted the two to meet and fight. Arti probably gladly accepted that without second thought. But maybe David didn't want to?"

"But he's a natural killer!" Larissa pointed out. "Why would he _not_ do it!"

"Doesn't mean he wanted to kill" Xi smirked.

Nonam spoke up again. "Well, it does seem like none of the injuries delivered to Arti at first were non fatal. But there was still that fatal wound to his chest."

"Well should we figure out who died first?" Chase asked. "It would have to have been David… or maybe not…"

Nonam took out the Monokuma File "Well, we didn't get the time of death for David, but we have the time of death for Arti. Fifteen minutes before we discovered him. It's highly unlikely that David was killed in that time…"

"It would also explain why David was found in said way, but Arti wasn't. They might have run out of time…" Arianna said.

"Which means, that Arti could have been the one to deliver the fatal wound…" Chase said "And someone else finished off Arti!"

"S-so there are two killers?" Eliza mumbled. "Why must there be two!"

"Wait!" Larissa called out "We don't know if that's even true yet. Maybe Arti didn't kill David! I… just can't believe he would do something like that!"

"Didn't Tristan end up killing someone?" Xi smirked.

"S-shut up!" Marisa called out.

"Oh…" Xi almost laughed "It seems like a touched a nerve, don't worry! He will be resting in pieces, forever."

"You fuck!" She yelled back.

"E-everyone! D-don't argue like this!" Eliza tried to stop the fighting.

Marisa didn't say anything, but she was probably going to be constantly glaring at someone.

"All I'm saying is that Arti could have very well have killed David!" Xi smirked.

"Yeah, keep talking" Chase rolled his eyes "You are just going to have more people hate you."

He chuckled "Maybe I want that…"

"ANYWAYS!" Marisa shouted. "Moving on!"

"So…" Nonam started up the trial again "Let's assume that Arti was the one to deliver the fatal wound to David, with the katana… if that's even possible in the state he was in… How did Arti die?"

"Well someone else could have come out of hiding and killed Arti themselves!" Delilah suggested. "It's what I would do!"

Chase sighed "Don't be too eager about it…"

She giggled a little before getting back into a serious composure "But that's even if someone was lying in wait…"

"What…?" Nonam asked.

She rolled her eyes playfully "Oh forget what I said! Let's just go over what Arti did after he killed David"

"W-well, of course he pinned his body to the inside of the closet" Eliza said. "W-who else could have done it…"

"I'm just trying to make sure we are all on the same page!" Delilah said. "Then what? Arti went off and got himself killed"

"Yeah…" Chase shook his head "Get on with it…"

"Nothing suggests a third party yet… so what if the wound Arti got, was from David himself…" Delilah smirked.

"You mean… Arti got stabbed and did all those things?" Chase asked "I don't buy it…"

"Well, wouldn't that be the best possible outcome?" She giggled again

 _The best outcome… true… if both killers are currently dead… then… that means no one here needs to be executed… but… is it really that easy?_

"Well… does this theory seem far fetched?" She smirked.

 _She… was completely confident with what it was… something isn't quite right. It sounds believable, however, there are also a lot of things saying that it couldn't be that_

.

.

.

Class Trial

Intermission

.

.

.

"Soooo? What do you all think?" Delilah tilted her head in an adorable way.

"What? No, it's way too early to decide that!" Nonam yelled out.

"He's right" Monokuma said "We just got to the class intermission.

"The what?" Chase seemed confused.

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" The bear yelled out.

"So why do you think it's too early?" Delilah asked Nonam. "They clearly killed each other!"

"I… I don't want it to be one of us who did it…" Eliza mumbled.

"You guys are idiots…" Chase sighed "There has to be a third party involved.

"But… but…" Larissa said "I think only David would have been able to best Arti…"

"HOLD ON!" Monokuma called out.

"Oh god no…" Marisa sighed.

"It seems like you are almost split down the middle!" Monokuma laughed "Well I'm glad to present the class trial morphenomenal grounds!" He quickly took out a key and turned it in a lock. Suddenly, the trial ground started to lift up and everyone was seperated in two groups.

.

.

.

 **What happened?**

.

 **They killed each other:**

.

 **Delilah**

 **Eliza**

 **Larissa**

 **Xi  
.**

 **A third party was involved**

.

 **Arianna**

 **Chase**

 **Marisa**

 **Nonam**

.

"You have to assume that's it's reasonable that they could have **killed** each other" Delilah smirked. "David died first and Arti died shortly after…"

"Except there's not even enough proof to confirm if they **killed** each other…" Marisa said.

"No one else could have killed **Arti** , only David could have!" Larissa said.

"A misplaced blow could have easily killed **Arti** " Arianna said.

"There's were no traces of a **third party** …" Xi pointed out.

"All the **third** **party** needed to do is stab Arti and leave" Nonam said.

"That should have still left **traces!** " Larissa said.

"Well Nonam and Marisa didn't even know David was dead until they opened the closet door. **Traces** can be hidden!" Chase said.

"B-but where would the killer have **hidden** , if Arti dragged David to the only closet" Eliza said.

"The killer could have been **hidden** outside, and waited" Chase said.

"Wouldn't Arti have **heard** the killer walk in?" Xi said.

"He probably **heard** them, but in his state, he wouldn't have been able to do anything" Arianna said.

"Do you really want **one of us** to have killed him?" Larissa cried out.

"I don't want it to be **one of us**! But if it is, we can't just let them take our lives too!" Marisa said.

"Unless you have **proof** to go over, this is the conclusion we've reached" Delilah smirked.

"There is **proof**! And I'm going to show it to you!" Nonam called out.

.

"Are you all forgetting the biggest mystery of this case?" Nonam asked.

"The biggest mystery? Whatever do you mean?" Delilah giggled.

"The library…" Nonam said "It collapsed around the same time as Arti was killed… And we know it has to do directly with the murder! Because…" Nonam felt confident about this next remark "The knives found in the library belonged to David. David carries fifteen knives around with him at all times. But we only found eleven stabbed into him at the scene of the crime. The other four were used to disrupt the books. Probably making the elevator not able to work.

"We also found that the sturdy cord that helps move the elevator had snapped. However it wasn't just snapped, it was probably cut…" Arianna said.

"Cut? Hmm… with a knife?" Xi smirked.

"No… probably something else…" She started to think.

Chase started to think "There isn't anything sharp enough per say… however, if the elevator did put a lot of strain on the cord could have cut more easily once it was weakened…"

"But we still don't know what could have been used to cut it…"

"Who was around the library when it fell…?" Xi asked.

"What?" Nonam looked over at him.

"Who, was near the library, when it fell?" He asked again.

"Well, Arianna and I. Oh and Larissa too. And I think you were also really close. Besides that, there didn't seem to be anyone else…" Nonam said.

"And who went to investigate the library several times?" Xi asked.

"Well, I investigated the first and second floor. And Arianna investigated the third and fourth floor…" Nonam said. "But then Arianna went back to the library after discovering David. Then back to the fourth floor"

"So she had free range to change what the fourth floor elevator shaft looked like?" He kept going.

"Are you saying Arianna was behind that? She was with me when it fell!" Nonam said.

"Well, it could have been set on a sort of timer, or she was hoping that when she passed by, it would fall. Wasn't she one of the people who stayed behind? She had all opportunities to do so! Including killing Arti!" Xi grinned.

"I'm not going to take this bullshit anymore!" Arianna said, but someone else started to speak.

Eliza was the one to speak up, trying to change the subject. Probably so Xi would stop blaming Arianna. "W-well… now that we are on the subject of the elevator… At least I think this has to do with it. On my way down to my room, I heard constant screeching noises. Like metal on metal, but it wasn't like a falling sound… it was like it was going up and down… I didn't bring it up because at the time I didn't realize what it was…"

"So wait, you heard that before the elevator ever actually fell?" Marisa asked her.

"Y-yes…" She replied.

"But what would have made it go up and down like that… no one was using it…" Marisa said.

 _What made the elevator go up and down like that? It was already mentioned…_

"The knives probably affected the wiring of the elevator, making it want to go to several floors at once. So it would lower and quickly raise up again. This would have put a lot of strain on the cord. Easy to cut after that…" Nonam said.

"Well, now it's a matter of finding out exactly what was used for it…" Xi said.

"Well it couldn't have been any of the stuff Arti or David had on them, since they were all out of service…" Arianna sighed. "Although David and Arti both had other weapons in their room…"

"Not to mention the training room. However in all three of those locations, nothing seemed to be tampered with or at least recently used…"

"Maybe the killer just knew how it was supposed to be placed?" Xi smirked.

 _What… is he getting at…? Dammit, I can't cave into his way of thinking!_

"Should we talk about Arti's stab wound again…" Chase said. "It feels odd…"

"Odd? How so?" Arianna asked.

"No, I agree… it was on his right side. Although the left side would have been optimal, because that's where his heart would be… But even then it was slightly lower than that. As if they were aiming for something else… Marisa said.

"Or someone else…?" Xi smirked.

 _There it is again! Why does he say things like th- wait… NO! That's it!_

"I think Xi is right, Arti, might not have been the intended target…" Nonam said.

"What do you mean…?" Chase looked at him.

"The killer's intended target must have been David. I can't believe I haven't realized this yet! But both fatal injuries were the same size! Like they had been dealt by the same weapon. So it's the only thing that makes sense…"

 _What position where they in when both of them got stabbed?_

"David and Arti would have needed to face each other when the culprit made their move. The culprit was most likely behind David when he got stabbed. Which is why he has an expression of shock… But what if it didn't stop there and it went through him, stabbing Arti on the other side. It would also explain a few other things like Arti's injury…"

 _But it explains mostly one other thing that has been bugging me…_

Nonam came to a realisation "The unnatural blood stain that was around the wound that Arti had. It's not his own blood! It's David's blood!"

"So Arti wasn't even the intended target?" Chase said. "But how could they have not seen him?"

"Well, both Arti and David were tall." Nonam started "David was about 5'11", while Arti is a little over 6'. It's entirely possible the person was shorter than both of them and Arti was just hidden behind David through perspectives…"

"So Arti didn't need to die…?" Larissa said with the saddest voice ever.

"No… he didn't need to die… he must have gotten caught in the crossfire…" Nonam said sadly.

"It could also be that the person attacking David was too in the moment to even notice Arti was behind him." Arianna said.

"You're just saying that because you are short" Xi smirked.

Yeah, she didn't like that comment. "Jackass…"

"Let's please just get back to the topic…" Marisa said. "This brings up a whole lot more of possibilities…"

"H-how so?" Eliza asked.

"Why was Arti there in the first place then, if the note was directed towards David and written by Arti, and he was actually there. That mean he must have known… meaning…" She cut herself off. "No… never mind…"

"Looks like someone has discovered a horrifying discovery." Xi grinned.

"Xi! What are you even going on about!" Nonam asked.

"Think… someone who had access to a variety of weapons. Who Arti could have possibly told about his plans. Who would have even helped out… Who could that possibly be?" Xi smirked. "Choose someone… accuse someone…"

 _W-what? You want me to accuse someone? But… with all that info… it could only really be one person…_

"Larissa…" Nonam said, a lot of regret in your voice. "Did you know…"

"Know what…?" She said. "Arti's been acting strange… but he didn't tell me anything… He should have… I could have stopped whatever was going to happen...!"

"Larissa" Xi said. "Drop the act"

"What act!" She had a tear falling from her cheek. "A-are you blaming me…"

 _Dammit… what if this is the wrong answer… but… who else could it be…_

"I don't want to accuse you, Larissa. But there's somethings I need to know!" You were passing by the second floor library entrance… and were hit by a bunch of rubble…" He asked her.

"Yes…" She said.

"However, the first floor, the scene of the crash actually didn't receive rubble" He said.

"All we got is a door…" Arianna sighed.

"So… how come you were covered in rubble? Not only that but there was a ton under you. When it should have been all over you instead…" He continued on. "Did you… fake the injury too?"

"N-no! The injury was real!" Larissa replied. "W-why would I hurt myself anyways…"

"Hmm…" Delilah smirked evilly "Oh Monokuuuuma"

"What?!" He seemed angry. "Not this again!"

"Was she reeeaally injured?" Delilah asked.

"I don't need to answer that!" Monokuma yelled.

"Actually! You do! Because if she wasn't injured, and you took her away. You are just an accomplish to her lies!" Delilah smiled so innocently, yet her head was so very twisted.

"W-what?" He seemed uneasy now.

"Teeeelll us!" She giggled.

"Fine! Yes, she actually was injured! If not, I wouldn't have taking her to get fixed up. Poor poor Larissa…" He sighed.

"See?" Larissa yelled out.

 _Dammit! I… I probably guessed wrong…_

"Don't give up Nonam!" Delilah called out. "I think you are on the right track!"

 _Dammit, having Delilah and Xi encourage me like this is annoying… Delilah is more of a wild card than Xi… but maybe Xi knows something I don't…_

"How would I have returned whatever I used anyways, if you claim it's me…" She asked. "I was had no time to go to any of those rooms"

 _Wait shit. That's right Xi the entire time! Or… was she…?_

"Larissa… where you truly with Xi the entire time?" He asked her.

"O-of course! Ask X-" She was still crying.

"No she wasn't. Me, being the selfish prick I am, left her there when I heard the body discovery announcement…" Xi smirked.

"A-" Larissa let only that escape her mouth.

"So she probably had a lot of time to return whatever it was. And that would explain why the door was open…" Xi smirked.

 _Wait!_

.

"Hey, Xi. Did you open Arti's door?" Chase asked.

"No, I haven't even been to his room yet…" Xi shrugged. "Why ever do you ask?"

Chase started to think "Because his door was already open when we went there…"

"Nope, not me…" Xi smirked. "I'm polite and close my door. It's not like I'm in a rush to get anywhere…"

.

 _That's right! Xi mentioned that this was probably caused by someone being in a rush… but…_

"So you are saying Larissa must have been in a rush…?" Nonam asked.

"That's exactly what I'm implying!" Xi smirked.

"But why would Larissa even do that in the first place?" Marisa asked "I have a hard time believing this! So I think Xi is lying somewhere!"

"H-he is!" Larissa yelled out. "I was with him the entire time! I even showed up with him!"

 _Shit…!_

.

The rest of the people who were missing, Arianna, Delilah, Larissa, and Xi, showed up.

"What's wrong with… Arti?" Larissa said weakly.

.

 _Dammit! Why is this so difficult! Think Nonam! Think!_

"How did you manage to keep up with Xi if he left earlier than you?" Nonam asked.

"I was following him the moment he left…" She mumbled.

"But…" Chase started to think "Even with that speed, would she have truly been able to catch up to Xi…"

 _No… she has to be lying about something!_

"That's it! You were lying about how injured you were!" Nonam called out. "That way when no one was watching, you had free range to go wherever you liked! And once you were done… you joined up with the rest of us… Didn't you Larissa?"

"..." She didn't say anything to defend herself.

"Alright…" Marisa sighed "We should probably stop attacking her like th-"

Larissa fell to her knees. "I… I can't fight it anymore… I'm sorry…" She was crying.

"L-Larissa?" Marisa froze "D-don't tell me… you actually did it!"

"... yes…" She was looking at the ground. "Arti told me he was going to kill who he thought the traitor was… he even gave me a location to where it was going to happen. I tried to convince him not to numerous times… But he never listened…" Her tears were running down her cheek. "After the show, I went to check the art room to make sure he wasn't actually going to do it… that's when I saw him and David fighting. I rushed away to his room to get the sword he taught me how to fight. My intention was to stop the fight… however… when I got back. Arti was almost dead, and David was still up and kicking. I wasn't thinking and the only way I could probably save Arti was becoming the blackened myself… However… We all know how that turned out. He got stabbed too!" She let out a low sad whimper. "I… I couldn't keep up is final request… he wanted me to survive the class trial…"

 _I… I didn't ever want to come to a truth like this…_

"W-what…?" Eliza said. "So you ended up killing Arti too?"

"Y-es…" She was crying. "And even after I remembered everything…"

 _What?_

"What was that…?" Chase asked "What do you mean you remembered?"

She slowly got back to her feet. "Well, Tristan lied about getting his memory back… he wasn't very good about it… in what I remembered, he knew how to use technology…"

"Wait! Are you even allowed to say that?" Marisa yelled out, looking at Monokuma, worried.

Monokuma laughed "Well I did say you weren't supposed to reveal anything! However! That was mostly about how you got here. Old interactions are totally worth being mentioned! In brings upon more despair!"

"But what I remembered was all the time I spent with Arti. And how he trained me to use a sword throughout our high school lives… which is why I asked him to train me."

"T-then I was right and we do know each other from before we lost our memory!" Eliza shouted out.

"So… I guess I'll tell you step by step of what happened…" Larissa said.

 _So… Larissa killed both David and Arti… no… something is not right…_

.

"So, when I went to go check on the art room. Arti and David were already fighting…" She started saying. "That's when I ran to get the sword from his room"

"Go on…" Chase said.

"When I got back, Arti was already pretty beat up. Out of rage, and ran towards David and dealt him the fatal blow. Unfortunately, it was also the fatal blow for Arti"

.

"Wait! I don't think that adds up!" Nonam said. "How long was Arti still alive after you stabbed him?"

Larissa started to think "Hm… Several minutes… why?"

"I knew it!" He yelled out. "The Monokuma File states that Arti died mere seconds after the fatal blow was dealt! If he was still up and OK after that, then… that means something else killed him…"

"No…" Larissa said. "That can't be!" She started to cry. "I know I killed him! I saw myself do it! Just go on and vote already!"

 _No! It's too soon to decided!_

"There's no other option! I saw him die!" She was crying. "So I had to have been the one to kill him!"

"I'll give you proof! Proof that you had no say in, no matter how much you cleaned the crime scene!"

 _And that proof is!_

"The Body Discovery Announcement! Monokuma stated that when you first kill someone! You can't be part of the Body Discovery Announcement unless you left the room for a long period of time and returned. You aren't aware you killed them, or you didn't kill him…"

"S-so what…" She cried some more.

"Well you never said you left the room and came back, right" He asked her.

"I only came back when everyone else was gathered…" She said.

"So that eliminated that possibility!" Nonam pointed out. "And since you keep saying that you killed him, you can eliminate the second option! Which leaves the only other option… you didn't kill him…"

"Well if I didn't kill him! Then who did!" She was a mix of sadness and anger.

"First we should focus on what killed him…"

 _Yes… the thing that most likely killed him was…_

"We found a gun under the dumpster. I don't think even you knew that was there…" Nonam said.

Larissa, remained silent.

"However…" Marisa said "All six bullets were in the chamber… So I don't think it was used…"

 _No… it was used… and someone had a good idea… that person who had an idea was..._

He looked over at Chase "Chase, during the investigation… You said…"

.

"Yeah… we found a gun at the crime scene because it was unused…" Nonam said.

"What makes you say that?" Chase crossed his arms.

"Well all the bullets were still in the barrel…" Nonam said.

"Someone could have just reloaded the gun…" He sighed

.

Chase scratched the back of his head "Yeah, I said it might have been reloaded. But that was just a guess…"

"W-well if he's bringing it up like that, it must mean that's what happened!" Eliza said.

"The gun must have been reloaded after been used. And tossed under the dumpster…"

"But, why would the killer not take the gun with them…" Arianna asked.

"They couldn't…" Nonam said sadly.

"What do you mean they couldn't…?" Chase looked at him.

"They couldn't… because the killer is…" He frowned.

 _Yeah… who did this to Arti was…_

"I think, Arti did this to himself…" Nonam said.

"What!" Larissa cries out "First you won't take my confession! And now you are saying he killed himself. At this point you are just insulting him! He had no reason to kill himself!" She was really crying now.

"No! I'm positive that happened!" Nonam called out.

"Maybe… that's going a little too far…" Marisa said.

"Marisa, we investigated together. You should know why he had to be the one to use it…" Nonam said.

"I-I do?" She seemed confused.

"Yes…"

 _Another clue that points that Arti used it… is…_

Nonam started talking again "The excessive amount of blood on the handle and trigger of the gun. Like someone who was bleeding a lot was trying to hold it. If you remember, Arti was missing several fingers, so that would explain the amount of blood. So if a second third party was involved, it wouldn't have been covered in blood…"

"S-so what! He wouldn't have been able to use it…! All his fingers were gone!" Larissa said.

"No, only five of them were gone!" Nonam said "And he was still fighting with his katana while missing five fingers. So it's possible he could have easily have used the gu-"

"Then why!" She cried out. "Why did he kill himself! He didn't need to!"

 _Dammit! She probably won't listen to me anymore! I need to tell her why… but even I don't know… unless…!_

"There should have been no reason for him to kill himself!" Larissa cried out. "He could have lived longer!"

"Well he probably didn't want you to have killed him…" Marisa said.

"But that doesn't warrant him killing himself!" She cried out again.

 _Wait! I know why! And this is my final answer!_

"He wanted to become the blackened!" Nonam yelled out. "He probably wanted to throw this whole trial out of whack! No one would have known what would happen with two killers! And I believe he was taking a gamble on that. Maybe… just maybe… he did that to save Larissa…"

"S-save me?" She looked at Nonam.

"Yeah… maybe if he would become the blackned. There was a possibility that Larissa would be saved!"

"And there is!" Marisa called out "Remember what Monokuma said!"

.

"Hey! Monokuma!" Chase called out. "What if there are two killers! How would that be fair?"

"Hmmm? Two killers? Oh, well if that happens, as long as you vote for one of them! It will be OK!

.

"I-I… can live…?" Larissa had a shocked expression on her face.

"All we gotta do is vote for Arti, if that's the case!" Marisa cheered excitedly.

"Not so fast!" Monokuma called out.

"W-what? Just let me live!" Larissa cried.

"Aren't you forgetting the other thing I said…?" He laughed.

 _Other thing he said… no… it can't…_

"You said you wouldn't care… as long… as someone was punished…" Nonam had a hard time saying that.

"What the hell?" Chase said "That's bullshit!"

Monokuma showed his claws "What kinda conclusion would this be if no one died at the end of this trial! I don't even have an AI lined up to execute in cases like this!"

"So…" Xi frowned "You planned this from the start didn't you. To give us all false hope…"

 _For some reason, even Xi wasn't happy about this. Weird…_

"You… you knew!" Marisa called him out. "That's why you said that in the first place! You knew we would come to this conclusion! You sick… fuck…!"

"Really? I think it's pretty ingenious!" Delilah smirked. She got several glares her way. "What? She killed someone! Heello! Are you all dumb or something?"

"S-she's right… I killed someone and should face the punishment…" Larissa looked at the ground. "Nonam… get on with the closing whatever…"

"Alright…" He sighed

.

"Act 1: The crime started when Monokuma revealed the next motive. The motive was that there was a traitor in our midsts. One of the culprits, saw someone as suspicious… They found David to be suspicious. So they devised a plan. To lure them to a place and kill them. They sent a note to David's room, asking him to meet at the Art room after the play. They signed their name on the paper, for reasons we don't know why. David probably knew this was a trap of sorts and advanced with caution. As for the second culprit, they took a precaution, they acquired a gun from the training room, loaded it with six bullets, and brought an extra one in case. This would later be used to kill them.

.

Act 2: The second culprit mentioned what they had planned to someone. That someone, was the first culprit of this case. After the play had finished, the second culprit had volunteered to clean up and shooed off anyone who stayed behind. So that no witnesses would be there. Once in the room. David made his appearance. And we can all but assume that a fight broke loose between the two people.

.

Act 3: At this moment, the first culprit walked into the room. They had probably gone to stop the second culprit from going through with their plans. However, it was too late by the time they got there. They quickly ran away towards the second culprits room. Using a key they swore that was returned, they opened their door and grabbed a sword. Not just any sword, but the sword they had been training with.

.

Act 4: Meanwhile, in the art room, David and the second culprit continued their spare. Despite how good the culprit was with swords, David had the upper hand because he was an experience killer. Cutting off several fingers off of the second culprit. This was all in an aim to prevent the culprit from using their katana. This, however, didn't stop them and only made them fight harder.

.

Act 5: Soon, the first culprit returned with the sword, only to discover the state the second culprit was in. Fueled by rage, they dashed towards David and stabbed him in the back, piercing his heart. He died instantly. However, what the first culprit didn't notice in their rage, was that the person they were helping, the second culprit, was behind David. Freaking out, they probably removed the sword. Which did not help at all.

.

Act 6: The second culprit quickly crawled over to the wall near the dumpster. This left a trail of blood on the ground, as well as a weird blood stain on their shirt, despite not having been cut there. The first culprit started to freak out even more and had to hide David's body. They choose the closet to hide him in. The culprit was probably still mad at David, so they used his knives to pin him up in the closet. They, however, kept four knives for another purpose.

.

Act 7: The first and second culprit probably had a lengthy conversation while the first culprit cleaned up the room. Time was running out for the second culprit and they wanted the first one to win and survive this killing game. As they were two people who probably really got along with each other. At around 9:30 pm, the second culprit started the final step of their plan.

.

Act 8: They removed the gun they had previously taken with them. Probably to kill David in a pinch. However, that weapon was now going to be used on them. To prevent the first culprit from becoming the blackened for both murders, and to also mess with the killing game. The culprit shot themselves in the back, near the heart. This gave them enough time to reload the gun, and throw it under the dumpster. They died mere seconds later. They probably shot themselves in the back so the first culprit wouldn't notice.

.

Act 9: The first culprit left a minute later, so they could mess around with the elevator. They used the four knives to break the circuit and keep them broken. After all four of them were broken, they ran out of the elevator, and waited for it to lower. This next part may not seem obvious, but when the elevator isn't there, all that's separating us from the elevator chute, is a thin line of wallpaper. The culprit probably cut it open to get on top of the elevator.

.

Act 10: The elevator went up and down quickly, and suddenly. Enough to weaken the wire that was suspending the elevator. This is when they cut it with the murder weapon, and, to avoid dying from the fall, probably used the sword to slow their fall against the wall. Once they landed safely, they probably took some rubble from within the shute and carried it outside. This was to make it seem like they were passing by. And, for added effect, they even injured themselves with the rubble.

.

Act 11: Arianna and I had narrowly avoided the elevator crashing to the ground. We split up to investigate. I took the second floor. Once there, I discovered the injured first culprit. At the time, I never suspected they commited the crime. I needed to leave, so I got Xi to watch them. However, when the first Body Discovery Announcement played, they left the first culprit to themselves. Away from any eyes, they made it back to the second culprits room, and returned the sword to its owner. They had probably wiped the blood off with someone, and if I had to guess, I'd have to say a book from the library. No one would look through each book individually so it was a safe bet.

.

Act 12: Now that everything was done, they had to make it back to where they had killed David. They walked a little too fast back, and this was noticed by Xi, who had been walking a small amount faster than how fast the culprit should have been walking. However, they caught up nonetheless. When they got to the body, they acted it out like their world had just been shattered.

.

This is the truth that only you, and you accomplish could have achieved, Larissa Banks, the Ultimate Matchmaker, and Arti Fyshal, the Ultimate Swordwielder!"

.

.

.

"I… think I covered everything…" Nonam said.

Larissa slowly nodded "Yes… I think that is all…" Tears were still running down her face.

"Why… why did it turn out like this!" Marisa was also crying.

"I… I didn't want any of this to happen! I tried to stop him!" She called out. "But… he had no intention of stopping his plan. Or even coming out of it alive… He was going to make it obvious he was the blackened. That's why he even wrote his name on that note. It's why he used his sword and he so obviously shooed anyone away. He wanted you all to figure out who it was. But… everything backfired! Because… because of me!" She cried again.

"You said Arti wanted you to survive… right… does that mean he wanted all of us to die…?" Marisa asked.

"Maybe he wasn't fully OK in the head compared to what we thought?" Delilah smirked.

"Y-you shut up!" Larissa yelled at her!

"Delilah, what's up with you?" Chase asked her "You used to be different then this!"

"I'm doing this because I have to survive! If we mop around all the time because one of our friends died, we'll never move on! You do understand that, right Xi?"

Xi, however remained silent.

"Well whatever… doesn't mean we all can't be friends. We all haven't killed anyone yet. And I hope it stays like that. As much as it seems I enjoy everything that's happening! That's just a facade to hide how I really feel. If I show my sadness, I will become weak and easy picking."

"ENOUGH!" Larissa yelled out "I've… I've heard enough of your bullshit! Just go and vote and execute me immediately. I want to join up with Arti…" She cried out.

"It's time for the vote!" Monokuma called out! "Where the blackened and spotless faces off!"

.

A roulette appeared out of nowhere and started spinning. One by one, they all landed on Larissa's head, with the words 'GUILTY' under it.

.

No one wanted to say anything, because they knew exactly what would happen.

"Geez, why is everyone so depressed? You should all be HAPPY about this outcome! You all get to live!" Monokuma says.

 _The person who spoke up surprised me, including what they said_.

"Why the hell would we be happy?" Delilah yelled out, biting her thumb.

"Weren't you just happy a minute ago?" He asked.

"Yeah, we get to live and I'm happy. But at what cost. Three people died today. That was almost a third of who we had left… And only more, will die in the future…"

Larissa sighed loudly and sadly. "Just… get it over with…"

"No… please don't leave!" Marisa cried out. "I can't afford to lose any more friends. Gabriel… Tristan… Arti… not you too!"

Larissa frowned "I killed someone… so I deserve what's coming for me. Monokuma! Start it up!"

"AAAAAAALIRGHT! I've created a very special punishment for the Ultimate Matchmaker, Larissa Banks!"

Larissa turned to look at everyone else "I'm glad I got to meet all of you… you made my school life amazing. But please, never give up on hope. Keep living for everyone who has died!"

"Let's give it everything we've got! IIIIT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!"

.

Monokuma took out a little hammer and smacked a button.

Larissa Banks have been found Guilty! Time for the punishment!

Larissa was standing on a large pink heart. The surrounding walls were also pink and had various red coloured hearts. At the edge of the heart she was standing on, various pictures were there. All of people she probably matched up together successfully. Suddenly, one by one, the pictures shattered, striking Larissa with several shards of glass. Then, the heart she was standing on started to tear down the middle. She tried to hold on to the edge of the center of the heart. Sadly, Mono-cupids dragged her down. She fell onto another heart, this one slanted, so she started to roll off it. After rolling down many hearts. She reached the final one. There, she was surrounded by many Mono-cupids. All with bow and arrows, although something said that these wouldn't make someone fall in love. All at once, they started to fire at her with the heart arrows. They pierced her skin everywhere, rendering her almost immobile. She tried to crawl away but there was no use. The barrage of arrows did not stop. Until, she saw something in the distance. Someone was standing in the distance with a sheath on their back. This gave her more energy to crawl and she soon made it there. Only to discover the horrible. When the person, who she has assumed was Arti, turned around. They were wearing a Monokuma mask. They quickly took out the katana out and with one fell swoop of the arm. Everything went dark. It was over…

.

After the execution happened, everyone remained silent. No one could speak. There wasn't even any remarks from Delilah or Xi. They, also remained silent.

"Jesus Christ…" Chase was the first one to speak. "When… when will this end…"

"It… it… it… doesn't seem like it will" Eliza mumbled.

"Well… the only thing we can do now is head back to our rooms…" Marisa sighed. "I'm… going to go on ahead…"

"Me too…" Arianna said.

"We should all head back…" Xi said. He coughed a bit and regained his composure "Staying here won't do anything…!" He also left. Slowly everyone left and entered the elevator, leaving as a group.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Later that night… in a room…

Someone walked over to their desk and took out a key. "I might as well mark down the events of today down…" They sighed "Today was a terrible day…" They unlocked their drawer and removed… a laptop?! They placed it on the desk, and opened it. They opened a word document and started writing. "Soon, we will get out of here…" They sighed again "That will be the day… the day whoever running this goes down…"

.

Seven Students Remaining…


	10. Chapter 5: Forever Maze - Daily Life

_Only seven of us remained…_

 _There was Arianna, she was the person I trusted the most here. And she was always helping me out._

 _There was Chase, he isn't the brightest, but he's shown to be of much help with small theories he's come up with._

 _Delilah was, well, I don't know what to say about her, she seems to shift personalities to what conveniences her the best._

 _There was Eliza, she isn't the most outgoing, but she tries her best. And she seems way more comfortable in a domain she is good at._

 _There was Marisa, she's good at investigating the crime scene. Although she can be really reserved to herself. There's moment she won't come out of her room. But she's still a great help._

 _And finally, there was Xi. Xi seems to be a genius, but also insane. He goes against what we say half the time just for his own sick pleasure. But… something happened and now he isn't trying to torment us as much… what happened._

 _And finally. There's me… I don't know how I'm going to do this. But I'm going to end this fucking killing game!_

.

.

.

The day, started off as any other would… the Monokuma Morning Announcement played in the background, but no one really listened to those anymore. Nonam made his way to the cafeteria. There just so… few people left. Not many people were talking anymore.

"Guys… we can't just always ignore each other!" Eliza said "We need to stick together even more now!"

But still, no one spoke.

No one wanted to say something.

No one _could_ say anything.

Until

"Geez! You guys are such downers!" Delilah said. "Learn to cheer up! Yeah, we lost three friends, but! That just means we can't let their deaths be in vain! We need to keep fighting forward!"

"Hey Delilah…" Chase started.

"Yeah?" She tilted her head cutely.

"Shut up…" He mumbled.

"Dick…" Delilah mumbled.

Eliza sighed and stood up "But she's right… we can't just give up… what would the others have wanted?"

"To be alive" He mumbled.

"Well, I mean, that's not wrong…" She sighed a little "But that's not the point!"

Marisa looked up at them "But we can't just forget about everyone who's died…"

Eliza turned to face her "I'm not saying to forget! I'm saying to fight for them!"

Arianna stood up "Yeah. You are right. We can't give up now. Monokuma can't keep this game going on forever. There's just so few of us left. A class trial with six people would be boring to him…"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"That's not exactly true! You know what! I'll be nice! I'll strike a deal with you seven! One more class trial and then it will all be over! For the most part…"

"W-who would believe that!" Eliza called out.

Delilah started to think "Actually it makes quite a lot of sense, actually. If two someone gets killed and we hold a class trial. Our numbers will dwindle down to five. If someone else dies, there will be a class trial with only four people. And no one would like that…"

"If you don't accept the deal! I'll make sure that only three of you survive! You don't want that, do you?"

Eliza huffed her cheeks "Fine!"

"What are you doing?" Chase sat down properly.

Eliza sat back down and looked at Chase "It's not like we will actually have a fifth trial… this is just in case…" She glanced over at Xi and Delilah. "We can't trust them… I just… don't want to have to do two more of these…" She said.

"Welp! I better go prepare!" Monokuma laughed, and with that, he was gone.

"Dammit! What the hell is he planning!" Chase yelled out.

"Nothing we can't overcome!" Delilah said optimistically.

"Shut up, bitch."

"Dick"

Eliza looked at them both and coughed a few times "W-we should head up soon. To the fifth floor!"

"Is that truly the wise choice? Every new killing has happened on the newly discovered floor…" Arianna was thinking deeply.

"T-that's just terrible luck!" Eliza said.

Nonam looked at everyone "I don't think we should ignore the fifth floor…"

"See! Nonam agrees!" Eliza yelled out excitedly.

"We have nothing to lose…" Xi said. "Plus, a new place for a body would be nice."

 _Great, he's back to his usual self_

"All in favor of visiting the new floor, say 'Chase is a dick'!" Delilah giggled.

"Wait! What the hell is that!" Chase said.

She pouted slightly "Fiiine… say 'I'"

In total, five people said 'I'

"Democracy! Yeah!" She shouted out loud. "Let's go!"

"The systems rigged…" Chase mumbled as he got up.

Everyone soon followed a happy Delilah towards the fifth floor.

However.

When they got there…

.

Delilah opened the doors to the fifth floor, but a sad expression appeared on her face "What… this… this… what…" There was nothing. The room was simply a room with nothing. The walls were made of metal, and there was no furniture in the room. Delilah started to mumble stuff to herself, but none of it was discernible.

Soon, everyone had entered the room, Eliza, closing the door behind everyone. "W-what's going on?" She asked.

"This is just a one room fucking floor!" Delilah yelled out.

Suddenly, a screen appeared on the metal wall. "Hey! You aren't supposed to be here yet! I haven't done renovating the place!"

"So there is more!" Delilah called out.

"Now all of you scram!" Monokuma said.

Chase walked over to the door, ready to leave. However…

 _Clack! Clack! Clack!_

"W-what! I-i-it's LOCKED!" He yelled out.

Arianna ran over to the door and tried to pry it open, but it didn't work. "Monokuma! What's the meaning of this?"

"Oh? It's locked? It's because you aren't supposed to be here! This is your fault!"

Xi sent a glance towards Eliza "And who's the one to suggest we go here?"

"I-I didn't know this was going to happen!" Eliza squeaked.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Chase yelled at Xi.

"If I remember correctly, you were one of the people who didn't want to come here…" Xi pointed out.

Marisa, meanwhile was doing her own thing. She was crouching near the walls and looking at it attentively.

"So what if I didn't want to come here?" Chase crossed his arms.

Xi smirked "Well then you should be mad at Eliza for insisting on coming here…"

"No. I'm not going to get mad at her…" Chase said.

"What a hypocrite" Xi shrugged and walked away.

 _This is quickly… falling apart…_

"Everyone! Let's all stay friends!" Delilah called out.

 _Very… quickly…_

Marisa, seemed to be getting impatient by everyone but kept doing what she was doing.

Soon, it calmed down a little "So… what do we do now?" Chase asked. "This is probably all part of Monokuma's trap… Right before he left he said…"

.

" _That's not exactly true! You know what! I'll be nice! I'll strike a deal with you seven! One more class trial and then it will all be over! For the most part…"_

" _W-who would believe that!" Eliza called out._

 _Delilah started to think "Actually it makes quite a lot of sense, actually. If two someone gets killed and we hold a class trial. Our numbers will dwindle down to five. If someone else dies, there will be a class trial with only four people. And no one would like that…"_

" _If you don't accept the deal! I'll make sure that only three of you survive! You don't want that, do you?"_

 _Eliza huffed her cheeks "Fine!"_

" _What are you doing?" Chase sat down properly._

 _Eliza sat back down and looked at Chase "It's not like we will actually have a fifth trial… this is just in case…" She glanced over at Xi and Delilah. "We can't trust them… I just… don't want to have to do two more of these…" She said._

" _Welp! I better go prepare!" Monokuma laughed, and with that, he was gone._

.

"This means this has to do with a potential fifth trial. This has to be the motive…" He finished.

Marisa stood up "Doesn't take a genius to notice that…" She walked over to another wall.

"Someone's been awfully rude today…" Xi said.

"What are you doing, Marisa?" Delilah tilted her head.

"Trying to find a way… out!" She pushed on the wall, and a little section of it got pushed into it. Suddenly, the wall started to shake. And, like a hidden door, the wall moved out of the way. "There, a way out…"

Suddenly, the screen lit up "Actually, that's only leads further down. So sad you found it so soon. I was hoping you would all starve in this room… Oh well! Inside the Forever Maze! There is one way out. You will have to search long and hard for it!" And with that, the screen turned off.

"We should go in…" Marisa said. "If there's a way out… we need to find it…" She walked further into the hallway.

"The Forever Maze…" Nonam mumbled.

 _This can only end badly._

Everyone followed Marisa down the hallway.

"So what do you think makes this, the Forever Maze?" Chase asked, looking around.

"I-it can't possibly be endless…" Eliza said. "This is the fifth floor, it has to fit on top of the fourth floor."

"I don't think 'forever' refers to the length. But how long we might spend here…" Xi pointed out.

"I don't want to stay here forever!" Eliza shouted.

"That's a horrifying thought…" Chase mumbled.

Marisa was looking around attentively. For now, the hallway didn't split off "This is not making any sense…"

Arianna was pretty much having the same thought "We should have reached somewhere else to turn by now… We've only been going straight…"

"What's if it's not actually a maze…" Eliza suggested.

"No… Monokuma would not name something forever maze, if it wasn't a maze…" Marisa said.

"Then what's the gimmick…" Nonam said. "There must be a gimmick that makes this a maze…"

"A gimmick…" Marisa mumbled to herself.

Then as if on cue… a loud roaring sound was heard. But not from an animal, but from a mechanism.

Nonam stole a quick glance at his shirt and quickly got into action "Everyone! Take cover!"

Arianna, Chase, Marisa, and Xi all ran further down the hallway while Delilah, Eliza, and Nonam backed away.

"Take cover from what?" Delilah tilted her head.

Suddenly, also on cue. A metal wall came flying out of the wall and blocked off the two groups from each other.

"Oooooh!" Delilah said.

"Shit! What the hell!" Nonam yelled out.

"W-what's happening?" Eliza was freaking out.

"We've been separated!" Nonam yelled as he ran over to the wall. He hit it several times with his fists. "Dammit…"

.

.

.

Marisa slowly stood up.

 _What the hell was that…_

She looked over at the wall

 _Did we get seperated…? Dammit, if that's the case. This might be why it's called Forever Maze…_

Marisa took a deep breath "I think it's called Forever Maze, because as we've seen, stuff can change. It's almost impossible to get out of…"  
 _Dammit Monokuma…_

"Shit, so we are separated from the others…?" Arianna said. "Well, I guess we just need to find our way to them.

Marisa walked over to the metal wall and gave it a low knock. "It seems to thick to thick to even talk through this…"

"Eh… thick" Chase smirked a little.

"Get your head out of the gutter" Marisa sighed.

 _Well, there's only one thing we_ can _do…_

"For now, we must keep pressing forward. There's no use staying here…" Marisa told everyone.

"I wonder… if this maze… will become someone's grave." Xi smirked.

Marisa, ignored him, and kept walking away. This time, other routes were open for them to go down.

.

.

.

"So, I guess we should go further into the maze" Delilah said.

"I don't want to go further into it!" Eliza complained. "Coming here is a bad idea and I shouldn't have suggested it!"

"Well, now's too late to be worrying about that" Delilah said.

"We should keep aware of what direction is left and right according to this wall. Especially if we want to reach the other side to meet up with everyone…"

"I wonder if we are going to stay here for days…" Delilah said.

"Pleeease! Not for days!" Eliza cried out. "I don't want to stay here for another hour!"

 _Getting these two through this maze will be rather… difficult…_

"I'm just saying…" Delilah sighed "But don't worry… we won't…"

Eliza was looking gloomy as she was walking. Suddenly, something caught her attention. "Hey! What's this!" She ran into a room and looked around. "This maze as a classroom in it…"

Delilah followed her in, followed by Nonam.

"I don't think we should be getting sidetracked like…" Nonam sighed.

Eliza walked further into the room and stopped at the teacher's desk. "Hey! It's a book!" She took it and opened it. She read through it a bit before freezing. "What's… what's this…"

Delilah ran over to her and took the book "What is it?" She giggled. She read over it "Oh! It's just our student profiles!" She started flipping through the pages "Ultimate Journalist, Ultimate Swordwielder, Ultimate Lucky Student, Ultimate… well… that's not important!" She skipped to the end of the book to read through it. "Hmm… nothing we don't know…"

"So! We're we all in the same class?" Eliza cheered up.

"Yeah, it seems like it…" Delilah replied. "But that's stuff we could have guess easily. No new information is in here…"

Nonam took a step towards Delilah "May I see the book"

"No! Why would I trust something like this to you!" Delilah crossed her arms. She somehow stuffed the book inside her shirt. "You wouldn't dare try and it from me" She winked. She took a step towards him. "Unless… you want to get close-"

"No"

"Meanie…"

.

.

.

"We've been walking for a while…" Chase sighed.

Marisa let out a low sigh "Yeah, we have been. That's how a maze like this works. We keep walking into we find out destination…"

"What if there isn't a way out?" He asked.

"The reason why it's called Forever Maze could be because there actually isn't a way out…" Xi smirked.

"No, there needs to be a way out!" Marisa said.

"Oh! I know the way out!" Xi smirked.

Marisa stopped walking and turned towards him "And what would that be?"

"Murder…" Xi said.

"No! We are not doing that at all!" Chase yelled out.

"Xi, please stop thinking like that…" Arianna sighed "Although I think he is right… It's just for Monokuma to have the only way out to kill someone."

"Well none of us are stupid enough to do that…" Chase said.

"Yeah, however…" Marisa looked around "We keep saying that, however, our numbers are down to seven… less than half we started with. Nine of us are already gone…"

The hallway went silent.

Chase looked at the ground "Even more reason to not kill someone… It's going to be harder to pin the blame on someone else with so little people left… They would have to be out of their mind to even think of doing something like that…"

.

.

.

Delilah was walking, humming to herself. "So! After we get out of this maze, you should make a huge meal for all of us!" She was looking at Eliza.

"B-but for so few people?" Eliza mumbled "I don't want to go overboard like last time… there was… just so few people!"

"Sooo what?" Delilah giggled "I'll help you out and make sure you don't make too much!"

"O-OK…"

Nonam was looking at Delilah the whole time.

 _She saw something in the document… what did she see… ! Wait… did she see my talent and refuses to show me it? Dammit!_

"Hey… Delilah, why won't you let me see the document?" Nonam asked her.

"Because it's not really important…" She shrugged.

He stopped walking "If it's not important, why bring it with you?"

She also stopped walking. "Maybe it's because the truth is horrifying? Ever think of that?"

"T-that's more reasons for us to fully see the document!" Eliza squeaked.

"I'm sorry…" She sighed "But to stay hopeful, I can't show you the document…"

Nonam glared at her, but she was looking away at the time.

 _Dammit… I can't let her keep that forever…_

.

.

.

Chase stopped walking with the others when they reached a room. "Hey… this seems like a room…"

Marisa stopped walking and quickly turned to Chase "A room?" She walked over to it and walked inside.

"Wait, shouldn't we make sure it's safe!" Chase called out.

"I'm sure Monokuma would not want one of us to randomly die from a trap…" She said. She looked around the room. "Feel free to help me out."

However, no one else wanted to go in.

"Alright… have it your way…" She walked around the room. Suddenly, she stepped on a pressure plate and a timer started going off. Suddenly, the doors were blocked off, which there are three of them, by glass panels. "Shit!" She started to panic a little. The timer showed sixty seconds.

"Marisa!" Arianna called out. "Shit!"

Fifty-five seconds left.

Chase started kicking at the glass. "Come on!"

Fifty seconds left.

But no matter they tried. Nothing was working.

Forty seconds left.

Thirty seconds left.

Twenty seconds left.

Ten seconds left.

Marisa walked over to the wall and started examining in. Suddenly, at five seconds left, the room opened up a bunch of holes that seemed like arrows would come out of. However, when Marisa saw this, she smirked and took a few steps back.

Zero seconds.

Instead of arrows, just a sudden gust of wind came pouring out for several seconds. But that was it. Marisa was OK besides her summer dress, which she had forgotten she wearing, lifted up a little bit. "Shit…" She mumbled.

After the timer was done, the glass panel was lifted.

"Marisa! What the hell was that!" Chase yelled out.

"I knew nothing bad was going to happen… Monokuma wouldn't allow this to happen for no reason. Also when I looked into the newly opened holes, there was nothing in. I didn't expect there to be wind, however." She looked around the room "This could be easily turned into a death trap… We should be careful…" She walked out of the room.

.

.

.

Delilah, soon stopped walking and plopped down onto the ground. "Can we stop walking? This is getting exhausting!"

Nonam stopped and looked at Eliza, who sat down on the ground "Yeah… I guess a break won't hurt…" He lowered himself until he could properly sit down.

"Hey, why did any of you become what you are right now…?" Delilah asked. "Well beside's Nonam. He's pretty much a nothing…" She giggled.

"Hey, I would know what I am if I could see my damn file" Nonam said.

"Nope!" Delilah giggled.

"W-well…" Eliza started to talk "I became a chef because my parents would never cook, and I guess I got tired of eating take-out all the time. So I started using what little ingredients I had to make myself some food. After a few years I became pretty good and by age 12, I was already working in restaurants. I actually got my parents to stop eating at fast food all the time because they like my food more. Soon, the school recognized me and I was asked to attend Hope's Peak. Of course I accepted. They said anyone who goes there is almost guaranteed to be successful in life. What about you…?"

"Me?" Delilah said, humming a little bit. "I hated being confined to the ground when I was a kid. I wanted to be up in the air, where the birds fly. However, my parents were kinda against that dream… So I murdered them"

Eliza and Nonam looked at Delilah like she was crazy.

"I'm kidding!" She giggled. "But they were against the idea of me going on a plane. However that didn't stop me from going to the plane museum in my hometown. I proved to my parents that I was meant to become one. My mother eventually caved in and bought plane tickets so I could experience a plane ride. Well, she wasn't very interested, so that left little 13 year old me to do whatever I wanted. I snuck into the cock- heh… cock… I mean! I snuck into the cockpit, but what I didn't expect to find was the pilot dead and the co-pilot tied up. Meanwhile a criminal of sorts was controlling the plane. And stupid little me decided to try and fight the criminal. Luckily he had left the weapon he used to kill the pilot lying around. I grabbed it and hit him. I didn't kill him, not yet anyways" She giggled evilishy. "Now, against my better judgement, I decided to try and pilot the plane myself, instead of untying the co-pilot. I actually managed to do good, but the plane still crashed, although it was mostly a minor crash. However, because I did stuff, no casualties were received. Although I did get a major injuries. My mind became disjointed of sorts and that's why I'm crazy!" She giggled a little. "The co-pilot that had been there found me and started giving me personal lessons on how to fly planes. And I was also noticed by Hope Peak's Academy."

Nonam had listened to both of those stories. "Eh… Hope's Peak hadn't even noticed me until I tried to get into the reserve course. Apparently I stayed under the radar. But that's pretty much it…"

"So you seriously don't know what your talent is?" Delilah sat up.

"Nope…" He sighed.

"Hmm…" She started to think deeply about something. But it doesn't seem like she will say what it is.

.

.

.

Somehow, miraculously, the other group was having a similar conversation.

"Why I became an Actress? It just seemed fun" Arianna smiled "I guess as a kid I was good a lying and hiding my true intentions. One year we had to take an art class and I was going to sign up for visual arts, however that class was full so I got stuck in the drama class. At first I hated it for not being the class I wanted. But after a while, I started to enjoy it and actually passed at the top of my class. My teacher hooked me up with some of her contacts and suddenly, I found myself playing at a frequent amount of shows. Soon, I was almost always getting the lead role. One time I was going to play at a huge theatre. However I got given a minor role because all the other actors there were way better than me… However, in case the lead actress couldn't go on. I was supposed to be her backup. The night of the play, the lead actress were nowhere to be seen. So I went up instead of hers. Little did I know that representatives of Hope Peak's were there. I was probably scouted that night and planned to be sent a letter shortly after."

"I wonder what happened to the lead actress" Xi smirked "It's like someone included sabotage…"

"What are you implying!" Arianna yelled out.

"Nothing much" He shrugged "But you could have easily disposed of her to get that lead role"

Marisa shook her head "I don't think she would do that… what about you Xi?"

"Me? Oh well, nothing too interesting" He started to think deeply. "I guess it all started when in my friend group, I used to be the one that helps solves everyone… emotional problems. I'd give them advice that somehow worked. A nearby psychology building caught on to what I was doing and thought that I could be of some use. I worked my way to the top and eventually starting treating some criminals, with, little to no mental state left. However, spending so much time in several crazy peoples mind had an effect on my own mind and I turned like they did. Still great at my job. I could save everyone but myself."

"I guess it's my turn…?" Marisa smiled "Well, for some reason I was always someone who watched the news and read the newspaper. Although I was only interested in reports of people who died. I decided I wanted to become a reporter so I practiced my writing. But I always had it do with a murder case. One day, a murder happened near my house and I snuck off to go to the scene. I wrote down everything that I found and tried to make a report out of. I was caught by a policeman at the scene and he took me home. He must have read the paper I was writing on because he spoke to my parents about it and then the next day they took me to the news station. Turns out what I had written was very close to what had actually happened. So I got an invite here, an invite there. All of a sudden I was writing news reports on various murders. And somehow, I was able to figure out who did it. But it wasn't hard to do it then. I had to accuse people I didn't know or care about. Here… I have to accuse people I've learned to know… and I guess that's why I'm just so silent. I didn't want to show my true journalist talent in fear of becoming a target. But now, there's no time for that."

"Well…" Arianna said thinking.

Xi didn't really wanted to hear anything more backstory from her and turned to Chase "What about you?"

The Ultimate Flirt remained silent for a bit before talking "Fuck you…"

Suddenly, mechanisms started to sound and something behind them was moving. The metal wall vanished and all that was left was a glass pane. However, on the other side.

"Guys?" Delilah said, looking at them through the glass panel.

"Hey! We found them!" Chase called out.

"Well" Marisa shook her head "We didn't really find them persay…"

"Who cares!" Chase yelled out. "How are you three doing?"

"We are doing good…" Nonam said. "We haven't found a way out yet…"

"This place stretches on foooorever!" Delilah added in. "We'll probably die before we find a way out…"

"D-don't say that!" Eliza squeaked.

"Well it's the truth…" Delilah shrugged.

Chase let out a yawn "Man… how long have we been here… I'm getting tired…"

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

.

A monitor from the wall lit up to reveal Monokuma's face. "A body as be- Woops, wrong announcement! It is currently 10 pm! You better get some rest and lock yourselves in your room! Oh wait… you can't do that! Better hope no one kills you in your sleep! Monokuma! Out!" The screen turned off, leaving everyone in silence.

.

"Dammit, I don't want someone to kill me in my sleep…" Chase sighed.

Xi started to think "It's probably the most likely occurrence…"

"N-n-n-n-n-o!" Eliza screamed out. She was terrified of that happening.

Marisa started to think "We could always do a watch system. Two people stay up in shifts to watch everyone! And we make sure to switch it so it's not always the same two. I'll stay up with you Eliza" She offered.

"O-OK!" She smiled.

Arianna looked over at Nonam "Hey, me and you?"

Nonam nodded.

"Oooo Xi!" Delilah giggled.

He let out a sigh but nodded. "It was either you or Chase"

"Geez, you are making me seem like a nuisance…" He sighed.

"Well, I want everyone to stay up for something…" Marisa said "So there will need to be a group of three…"

Chase glanced over at Eliza but looked at another group "As much as I don't want to do this… I'm going to pick Delilah and Xi. I don't trust those two…"

"But I'm trustworthy!" Delilah complained

"Alright, so who wants the first shift?" Marisa asked.

"OO! OO!" Delilah lifted her hand. "Before that! Look at this!" She pointed at a map on the wall. This seems to show what the maze is currently like!" She tapped it a few times "Damn, it doesn't show our position nor does it allow me to change the interface…" She let t a sigh and sat back down "Also my group will take the first watch!"

Marisa nodded "Me and Eliza will have the second watch. And I guess Nonam and Arianna will have the last shift"

"I'm OK with that" Arianna said. "I'm used to getting up early for rehearsals anyways…"

"And I don't mind either" Nonam said.

Marisa stretched her arms and let out a yawn. "Well, I'm going to bed now."

Soon, everyone had gone to sleep but the three on watch. It was going to be a peaceful nice… or was it?

.

.

.

"Hey, wake up Marisa…" A voice called out.

Marisa slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see Chase sitting down beside her. "Huh…?"

"It's your turn for the watch…" Chase said. "Eliza is already up…"

She looked up at the glass pane and saw Eliza. She sat up properly and stifled a yawn. "What time is it?"

"Well my perception of time isn't great. But it felt like 3 hours had passed. Probably less, though…" He lied down on the floor. "Well, see you all in the morning!" He called out, passing right out.

Marisa looked over at Eliza, who was sitting down against the panel of glass. "You don't need to be afraid. I highly doubt someone will try and kill anyone with so little people left. If someone dies, that means that they have less people to pin the blame on"

"Y-yeah… you are right…" Eliza said.

Soon, the sound of glass lowering was heard.

"Huh?" Marisa put her hands were the glass panel separating both groups were. It was no longer there. She smiled and scooted besides Eliza, who had noticed the whole thing. "I'll make sure you live. Alright. I can't imagine someone like you dying in a place like this…"

"M-maybe that's how I survived this long… because people would feel bad about killing me…" She whimpered.

"Well, maybe that is true. But don't think of it like that…" Marisa smiled. "Think of it like-"

And then everything went dark.

…

…

…

… _?_

 _Why hadn't I been woken up yet…? This is weird…_

 _ **Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!**_

 _Is that… the morning announcement… or…?_

.

The screen lit up in front of Nonam to reveal Monokuma's face "This an announcement for Hope Peak's Academy! It is currently morning time! So have another fantastic murder filled day!" Then, the screen turned off.

.

 _What… I should have been woken up for my watch… But I never was… maybe Marisa and Eliza lost track of time?_

Nonam looked around and went to lean on the glass panel for support. However, he fell right through and his head landed right next to Delilah's.

"The glass panel is gone!" She giggled. "Isn't that exciting!"

"GAH!" He quickly sat back up and looked around "When did this happen?"

Delilah shrugged "I don't know… it was like this when I woke up…"

Arianna slowly got up and looked at Nonam and Delilah, before freaking out because they were on the groups side. "How did you get here?"

"Duuuh! The glass pane is gone now!" Delilah giggled.

Arianna looked around and knew right away something was off "W-where's Eliza?" She freaked out.

"Eliza?" Nonam turned to where she had been sleeping. However, she wasn't there.

 _W-what? Where could she have gone?_

"Everyone! Wake up!" Arianna called out.

The people who were still sleeping, Chase, Marisa, and Xi, slowly got up.

Marisa was clutching her head, seemingly a little dizzy "Ugh… what happened last night…"

"We have to go! Eliza is missing!" Arianna shouted.

"What!" Marisa quickly got up and stopped clutching her head. "W-we need to split up and find her! She could be… no… she can't!"

Delilah ran over to the map that showed a live display of the maze. "Alright! I'll cover this area!" She pointed to an area to the west of here.

Soon she gave everyone a spot to cover.

Nonam had the North.

Arianna, the South.

Xi took the locations around here.

Marisa took the East, although she volunteered for that section.

And Chase had been given the huge row of classrooms that was not to far from here.

"Alright everyone! Break!" Delilah called out, running towards the West.

Soon, everyone split up.

.

"Dammit…" Nonam mumbled.

 _Eliza can't be dead. She probably went to go check something, and got lost… no… I refuse to believe any of this!_

He went from hallway, to hallway. But still, on Eliza could be found. He headed more East towards where Marisa was searching.

 _We can't afford to lose another person! We are already at a lost with seven people. We don't need to lose one more… we can't lose one more…_

Soon, he arrived at a room. It was far into the East side of the maze, but, he wouldn't have been able to tell.

However, soon, a trail of blood was visible.

 _What? Blood… oh god no!_

He started to follow the path of blood, coming across various messages plastered over the wall.

"Can you save them?"

"Time is running out…"

"Make a move, boy…"

 _What the hell is all of this? And why is it written in blood. More specifically, who's blood!_

Soon, he reached a door. An ominous door. He hadn't seen this door before, however, there was something odd about it. On the other side, beeping noise could be heard.

 _What is this?_

He opened the door and stepped in. The first thing he noticed was that a person was sitting on a chair, wrapped in a cloth to cover who they were. A timer was going down, and he had first seen it at 37 seconds left. He didn't like the look of that and went to take a step forward. However, something stopped him.

 _What is this… glass? Shit! No!_

Taking a look around the room, Chase was to his right, Arianna was facing him. They had a worried expression on their face. They must have come into the room while he was looking around. They couldn't go any further into the room because of the glass.

Twenty seconds left.

Chase was trying to punch the glass so it would break. Yeah, that wasn't going to work.

Fifteen seconds left.

Arianna ran out of the hall to look for something.

Ten seconds left.

 _What the hell is going to happen?_

Five seconds.

The walls had small holes open.

And suddenly.

The wind blew, but not just the wind. Something else was in there too.

Spears of sorts. And multiple of them impaled the target, probably killing them instantly.

Chase and Nonam could not move after witnessing that. They had seen maybe people executed before them. However, there was something different than seeing someone who didn't do anything wrong, or couldn't even fight, get killed like they did.

"Shit!" Chase yelled out. He took several steps back to get a running start and…

 _SMASH-SHATTER!_

He ran through the glass pane, which shattered into pieces. He got several injuries from it, however, that didn't stop him from going forward. He got one of the loose spears and ran to the glass pane separating Nonam from the room. And with a downward thrust.

 _SHATTER_

He managed to shatter the glass pane to let Nonam in.

"Hurry! They might still be alive!" Chase was almost crying.

"R-right!" Nonam ran towards the body.

 _I understand why Chase is probably acting like this… we… we found her… this is where she went off too… goddammit! What happened!_

Arianna returned with a chair from a classroom and shattered the glass, running in.

Nonam took a deep gulp and removed the sheet. But what they found was even more of a shocker…

.

The victim had several spears stabbed into their legs, pinning them against the chair that they were sitting on. Their body was tied to the chair. Wrapped with a lengthy rope which seemed impossible to acquire anywhere on the fifth floor, let alone the spears. In their stomach, several spears were inside them, blood, oozing out of it in seemingly an endless stream. They even had one in their neck. Their mouth was taped shut. So they wouldn't have been able to scream for help. So it was almost a fluke they were found. On their head, they were bleeding from two wound that didn't appear to be inflicted from a spear. The victim… the victim was… the victim was…what…? The Ultimate Journalist, Marisa Campbell

.

"W-what?" Nonam froze in spot.

 _H-how did she die? We SAW her alive several minutes ago!_

"You mean… it's not Eliza?" Chase was still crying, a mix of emotions were racing through him.

"H-how the fuck did this happen to Marisa?" Arianna was also freaking out.

 _She was tasked, well, she volunteered to search this section. And now… she's dead…_

"N-none of this makes sense!" Chase fell down to his knees. "Marisa is dead and Eliza is still missing… don't tell me there's another double murder…"

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

.

The screen lit up to reveal a smug Monokuma "A body has been discovered! Who will it be? You better hope it's not you. Did I say hope? What a weird choice of words! Anyways, the body is in that weird wind room! Find it on your own! Monokuma! Out!" And then the screen turned off.

.

 _We all remained in silence. We had just witnessed this… just… how… how did any of this happen? Just two days ago, we lost Arti, David, and Larissa. Why did we need to lose someone else! And why so soon!_

Soon, Delilah arrived at the room "Who died this time?" She looked at the body that belonged to Marisa and she didn't seem too sad. "Did any of you find Eliza?"

"No, none of us did find her…" Arianna sighed.

Nonam looked back and forth.

 _All we are currently missing is Eliza and Xi._

As if on cue, Xi walked into the room. He noticed Marisa and shrugged "It would seem we lost another one… and so soon…" He looked at Delilah and Nonam and gave them confused looks before shaking his head. "I didn't find Eliza at all, and I assume neither did any of you?"

"No… we didn't…" Arianna was looking around.

Everyone were looking at each other.

 _What the hell is going on…_

 _._

Six Students Remaining...


	11. Chapter 5: Forever Maze - Deadly Life

"Why does this keep happening!" Chase asked, on his knees.

"I don't know…" Arianna sighed.

Xi looked around the room "Well, the only course of action right now is to investigate the body so we can figure out who killed her…"

"But we still need to find Eliza…" Delilah said. "She could be dead too!"

Chase quickly got up "No! She wouldn't… she wouldn't just die! I know she's still alive! And I will go find her!" He ran out of the room to go find her.

"We are down to six people, it seems…" Xi said. "Well, that just means the culprit can be less people. So it's easier for us…" He smirked "I don't know why the killer would even bother killing someone off which such little amount of people…"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Wow guys? What's with the smell? It smelled like someone died in here!" He looked over at Marisa's body "Woops! I forgot someone DID die here! Which reminds me! I've come to deliver the Monokuma File!" He handed a file over to Nonam. "You better get to work! Also, I heard there's still a traitor on the loose! Puhuhuhu!" He laughed, before vanishing

Nonam let out a long sigh before turning on the Monokuma File

.

 **Monokuma File #6**

.

 **The victim of this case is Marisa Campbell, the Ultimate Journalist. She had been pierced by several rapidly traveling spears. She was killed at about 7:45 am. The only other injuries she has are two lacerations in the cranial area**

.

 _Well that isn't much information…_

"Hey, Nonam…" Delilah asked. "I wasn't here when it happened but the time of death was five minutes ago… did you see her die?"

"Yeah… I did…"

.

 _However, soon, a trail of blood was visible._

 _ **What? Blood… oh god no!**_

 _He started to follow the path of blood, coming across various messages plastered over the wall._

" _Can you save them?"_

" _Time is running out…"_

" _Make a move, boy…"_

 _ **What the hell is all of this? And why is it written in blood. More specifically, who's blood!**_

 _Soon, he reached a door. An ominous door. He hadn't seen this door before, however, there was something odd about it. On the other side, beeping noise could be heard._

 _ **What is this?**_

 _He opened the door towards him and stepped in. The first thing he noticed was that a person was sitting on a chair, wrapped in a cloth to cover who they were. A timer was going down, and he had first seen it at 37 seconds left. He didn't like the look of that and went to take a step forward. However, something stopped him._

 _ **What is this… glass? Shit! No!**_

 _Taking a look around the room, Chase was to his right, Arianna was facing him. They had a worried expression on their face. They must have come into the room while he was looking around. They couldn't go any further into the room because of the glass._

 _Twenty seconds left._

 _Chase was trying to punch the glass so it would break. Yeah, that wasn't going to work._

 _Fifteen seconds left._

 _Arianna ran out of the hall to look for something._

 _Ten seconds left._

 _ **What the hell is going to happen?**_

 _Five seconds._

 _The walls had small holes open._

 _And suddenly._

 _The wind blew, but not just the wind. Something else was in there too._

 _Spears of sorts. And multiple of them impaled the target, probably killing them instantly._

.

"So that's what happened?" Delilah started to think "I think that memory will be very useful in solving the truth!" She quickly walked away.

 _What was her deal? No… there's no time for that! I need to investigate Marisa's body._

Nonam took a few steps towards Marisa.

The spears appeared to be pretty deep into her skin. So deep that it comes out the other side. In total, about eight spears were stuck in her. All, drawing a lot of blood.

 _Dammit… why couldn't I do anything to stop it from happening! That damn glass!_

He looked over at the glass.

 _Well it's been reduced to nothing by both Arianna and Chase. Why was I too scared to even do anything…_

Nonam was looking around the spears when he took notice of her head "Huh…?"

Arianna walked over to him "It looks like she sustain damage to the head…"

Nonam slowly nodded "Yeah. That's what it says according to the Monokuma File. It was probably to knock her out. But why hit her twice…?"

"Well an easy explanation would be the first one didn't work" Arianna started "But it's never that easy, is it?"

"No it isn't…" Nonam looked at her head again.

 _I didn't notice it earlier, but why is her hat missing?_

"She also appears to have her mouth taped… how… how was it there. There shouldn't be any tape here. Same thing with those spears… and the rope… and the bag used to cover her face. None of those objects could have been obtained on this floor…" Nonam started to think even more deeply "Something is amidst…"

"Well I'll tell you something!" Arianna mumbled. "It's been beeping every since I got here and it hasn't stopped…"

"Beeping… noise?" Nonam thought back.

.

 _Soon, he reached a door. An ominous door. He hadn't seen this door before, however, there was something odd about it. On the other side, beeping noise could be heard._

 _ **What is this?**_

 _He opened the door towards him, and stepped in. The first thing he noticed was that a person was sitting on a chair, wrapped in a cloth to cover who they were. A timer was going down, and he had first seen it at 37 seconds left._

.

"Well now that I think about it, I heard it before coming in. It's probably still beeping because no one stopped the timer…" Nonam looked around and eventually turned off the object that was making the sound.

 _Weird, why use two different objects for the same system…?_

He walked over to the timer, which was still apparently flashing zero.

 _When I walked in, this timer had 37 seconds remaining. Is is safe to assume that it started at a minute. Which means the killer must have been left 23 seconds before we got there. How did none of us see them… unless…_

"Hey Nonam, you weren't here when me and the others tested out the room right?" Arianna looked at him.

He walked over to her and shook his head "No, but I assume it's used to shoot out stuff?"

"No. It actually only shoots out wind. But someone must have added the spears…"

 _Added them? Hmm… I see they are also still open. So it doesn't close right after being used…_ _I think this is it for now…_

He was going to leave until he noticed something. On each door, a broken string lay attached to the handle.

 _Well this is an odd choice…_

He opened the south door, which opened into the room. "Hmm… is was pointless to tie string here… the doors opened inwards, so it wouldn't stop anyone from entering…" He walked over to the West door and opened it, which also opened inwards. He came to the conclusion that all three doors were like that.

"Hey, Nonam…" Arianna said walking over to him. "I'm not sure if I'm just not remembering… but I don't remember being woken up for the night watch…"

Nonam started to think too "Yeah… I woke up when the Monokuma Announcement played…"

 _Strange… Eliza should have woken me up, and Marisa should have woken Arianna up. So how come neither of us woke up..._

"It could be that something happened to Eliza and Marisa…" Arianna said.

"Well I'll head out of the room now…" Nonam said.

Arianna looked over at Marisa and sighed "I'll stay here… Marisa would have probably done the same…"

Nonam nodded and, upon exiting, he noticed something interesting. The floor was no longer a maze, and instead, was a normal floor. "This must because the killing happened…" He frowned. "Well, now's not the time to think about that. I should probably head over to the map…" He walked over for a bit, getting lost in the actual hallways. Soon, he arrived at the actual maps.

 _So Delilah said it showed a live footage of the map. She also mentioned it wasn't interactive and it didn't show our position…_

He walked over and tried tapping on it to test the claim, however nothing happened. "Yeah, she was right. It also doesn't show where any of us are. Of course, that would make finding Eliza much too easy…"

 _Unless it wouldn't have shown… no… I can't talk about that. Also this is showing the map before it resorted to normal. Hmm…_

He looked over at where everyone had been.

 _Marisa had taken the East, which is also where she died. Chase had taken the classrooms around the area, which explained why he entered from the West door… Arianna had been inspecting the South… which explains why she entered through the South Door. I had the North which once again explains that. Xi had the center and Delilah had the West. It's strange how the three of us arrived to that room. Ah! That's it, the paths somehow only followed one direction. It was linear. How did I not realize that?_

He glanced over to beside the map and saw a box, which, probably contained wires, against the wall.

 _Checking this won't hurt…_

He opened it up and checking it actually proved to be worth it. "What? Two cords are cut?" He mumbled to himself. There appeared to be a wire labelled 'L' and a wire named 'T' that were cut. "What could that mean…?"

"It means you should fuck m-" Delilah, who had appeared behind him, said.

"No thank you." He said coldly.

"Meanie!" She pouted.

"Hey…" He turned to look at her. "I have a question!"

She tilted her head cutely "What's the question?"

"You had first watch… right?" He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, Chase, Xi, and I did." She confirmed.

He decided to get to the point "So when it came time for the switch, did that actually happen?"

"Yeah! Although Xi didn't bother waking up Marisa, so Chase had to do it. I woke up Eliza and immediately went to sleep. So I'm not sure how long Chase stayed up for." She smiled at him "Is that all?"

He slowly nodded "Yeah, I'll make sure to remember that…" He started to walk away.

"Are you down to fu-"

"No"

"Meanie…"

He quickly got away from there and started going over the North-West side. Suddenly, he heard the sound of something hitting metal. But it wasn't calmly hitting it. It was hitting it like someone was panicking. When he turned the corner, he understood where it could be coming from. There were a long row of lockers. He rushed over to where the sound was originating from. Soon, he stopped in front of the locker which was producing the sound. He remained frozen for a bit, trying to build up the courage to open it. He grabbed the door and opened it quickly, which now that he thought about it, was probably a very poor idea.

A body fell out of the locker and landed on him. The person was squirming around trying to break free. Muffled screams could be heard coming from them. However, they couldn't speak because of the tape. This person, like Marisa, was tied up. The person was also crying a lot and was probably pretty scared.

It was Eliza…

"Eliza!" Nonam called out. He took off the tape from her mouth and now her crying became heard. He untied the rope from her and she lunged in for a scared hug. She probably needed one.

"W-who died?" She asked.

"Who died…" Nonam repeated.

She slowly nodded. "Yeah… I heard the body discovery announcement when I woke up in the locker…" She wiped the tears from her eyes. "So… who died!"

Nonam remained silent for a bit before speaking "Marisa died…"

Eliza froze for a moment before looking at the floor. "W-why her…"

Nonam looked down at the floor. "Could you tell me what happened during the night…?"

"O-ok.." She said.

.

 _Marisa looked over at Eliza, who was sitting down against the panel of glass. "You don't need to be afraid. I highly doubt someone will try and kill anyone with so little people left. If someone dies, that means that they have less people to pin the blame on"_

" _Y-yeah… you are right…" Eliza said._

 _Soon, the sound of glass lowering was heard._

" _Huh?" Marisa put her hands were the glass panel separating both groups were. It was no longer there. She smiled and scooted besides Eliza, who had noticed the whole thing. "I'll make sure you live. Alright. I can't imagine someone like you dying in a place like this…"_

" _M-maybe that's how I survived this long… because people would feel bad about killing me…" She whimpered._

" _Well, maybe that is true. But don't think of it like that…" Marisa smiled. "Think of it like-"_

 _And then everything went dark._

.

"So she stopped talking and then you passed out…?" Nonam started to think.

"I-I think…" She mumbled. "I don't know exactly! I wasn't looking at her at the time!" She said shyly. She looked over at the locker she was in and grabbed something from in it. "This… was what was with me in the locker…" It was Marisa's hat.

"Oh…" Nonam said, his voice lower than normal.

Eliza let out a sigh and put on the hat "Oww…" She took it off and looked inside, before putting it "Well… we just gotta try out best for Marisa!"

"Right!" Nonam said. Although he noticed something on her head "Wait… remove the hat…"

She slowly took off the hat.

On her head, there was actually a laceration there. Like she had been hit on the head.

"You were probably hit by something…" Nonam started to think. _But what…_

Eliza put the hat back on "I-I need to find out where she is…!" She ran off without Nonam.

He was going to stop her, but there was probably no stopping her.

 _Hmmm… there's still several more things I am missing…_

He started to head back to the crime scene and bumped into Xi.

"Oh! Xi!" Nonam said.

Xi didn't really acknowledge him and seemed to be thinking on something else. "Hmm…?" He finally looked down at Nonam, noticing him. "May I help you?"

"I just want your opinions on things. Your group encountered the room, right?" He asked.

"We did… When we first encountered it. Stepping inside the room would activate it. Marisa was the brave soul to want to do so. Then, all access to the room closed off with glass panels. A sixty second timer started. At five seconds left, the holes in the wall opened. And at zero seconds, the wind started blowing out. And then the glass panels lifted up to let everyone in…"

"Hmm… interesting…" Nonam started to think.

 _Whether I choose to believe his words or not… but a lot of inconsistencies were said with what actually happened…_ _Unless it has to do with how the maze works! Ever changing! Hmm… This could be useful for the trial…_

He continued to make his way towards the wind room when he ran into someone else. It was Chase.

"Please tell me you found her or something! I looked everywhere!" Chase asked.

Nonam smiled "I found her in a locker and she said she was going to investigate the scene of the crime."

"Would she even know where it is?" Chase crossed her arms, a little angry at Nonam for not getting her there but also really relieved that she was still alive.

"No, our group never went there…" Nonam said "I found it because I was investigating the area…" He looked at Chase "Hey, why did you go there? You should have been exploring the classrooms…"

"Yeah I was, but when I was getting closer to the East side, I heard a lot of running and I ran over to check. I couldn't find Marisa, so I made my way to that room and when I entered. You and Arianna were already there…"

 _So either me or Arianna were the first ones to enter the room… does that even really have to do with the case?_

"So I guess I should head to the wind room and check to see if Eliza is there…" Chase sighed. He started to go straight towards the room, but Nonam stopped him.

"Hey, can you come check something else with me. I need to confirm something…"

Chase let out another sigh "I guess I could…"

The walked a bit to the area where Nonam had been exploring and he had his suspicions confirmed. The blood on the wall were still there.

"Why is there blood here?" Chase called out.

Nonam looked around "So there wasn't blood on your side?"

"No! There was no blood. Why did your side have blood?" Chase was reading the words in his head.

 _That… I do not know…_

"Well the blood leads up to the room. So it's most likely they dragged the body…" They made it into the room. Inside, Eliza was sitting down in front of Marisa.

"Eliza!" Chase called out, running towards her. He gave her a hug, but she was too in the moment to realize it.

"Why did she have to go…" She mumbled.

"Well… that's what we need to figure out…" Nonam said.

 _Hmm… how did she even know how to find this room?_

Nonam was going to ask something when suddenly.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

.

Suddenly, a screen lit up revealing Monokuma's face. "You've all been investigating for too long! I'm starting to get bored. And you know what that means! Trial time! Please make your way to the elevator and get ready to fight for your lives! Monokuma! Out!" With that, the screen turned off.

.

"I guess we have to go now…" Nonam said.

Eliza slowly stood up, adjusting the hat she had taken "Let's… let's…" She took a deep breath. "Let's do this…" She walked out of the room.

Chase rubbed the back of his head "We better go too…" He left the room.

 _Yeah… we are going to give this all we've got! For Marisa and everyone else who has fallen before!_

.

.

.

Nonam arrived at the elevator, which was already opened. Everyone was inside it, waiting for Nonam to get in.

"What took you so long?" Xi sneered.

"Was just thinking on the way here…" He said "I've gotten you out of trouble twice already. What's a third time?" He smirked as the elevator door closed. It started to lower.

 _This should be the final trial. Only one more person is going to go… it's a terrible thought. But that's what we've come to have to live…_

After a while, the elevator doors opened, and the trial grounds were seen.

The podiums were there for them, empty. Although ten of the places had images. One for Catrina, with two musical notes crossed against each other. One for Christopher with an X across it. One for Terra with an skull covering. One of Jenna with an x on her face. One with Gabriel with a x on his face. One of Tristan with an x across his face. One of Arti with two small swords crossed against each other. And one of David, with an X across his face, although it looked like it was bleeding. One for Larisas with a broken heart. One for Marisa with the X in a special font.

Everyone slowly walked to their podiums. When everyone settled it, it was finally time to start.

 _Marisa had taken up the mantle to leading us. It took some time for her to get to speaking to everyone again after Tristan died._

Several pictures appeared.

One of Arti reaching for his Katana in his sheath. The picture was redded out.

One of Eliza this time, she was wearing Marisa's hat, covering the top half of her eyes with it.

One of Terra, with her arms crossed, looking the other way. The picture was redded out

One of David playing around with a knife. The picture was redded out.

One of Jenna adjusting her glasses, clearly flipping someone off. The picture was redded out.

 _Not only did the person who did it kill her. They made sure we were watching. But that was probably unintentional_

One of Arianna rolling her eyes.

One of Marisa writing things down in a notebook. The picture was redded out.

One of Tristan holding a mouse in his hands. The picture was redded out.

One of Catrina listening to headphones. The picture was redded out.

One of Chase with his hands behind his back, acting chill.

One of Christopher looking worried. The picture was redded out.

 _But still, that person needs to be among us!_

One of Larissa holding her hands together. The picture was redded out.

One of Xi looking like pure malice with his crazy eyes.

One of Delilah with an adorable face, trying to be seductive.

One of Gabriel, covering his mouth, in deep thought. The picture was redded out.

One of Nonam, right in the middle, looking confident.

 _And I will figure out who that is in this trial of life and death!_

.

.

.

Class Trial

In Session

.

.

.

"So what should we discuss first?" Xi asked.

Nonam looked down and back up "Well, we should discuss about how the Forever Maze worked in the first place. It's highly likely it was involved in the murder in the first place."

 _The special mechanic that the maze has that makes it Forever, is…_

"Well, for one. The maze is ever changing. And there is no set intervals to when it changes. It's at random and with no warning. I barely was able to hear it change. Which is what got our groups separated at first. From that event alone, we can conclude a few things… No one could have set it up prior!" He started to get deep into thinking. "Because there would have been no way for them to anticipate when we reached that point. There also doesn't seem to be triggers in the maze persay. Because it took forever for that glass panel to reveal the other group"

"Yeah…" Eliza nodded. "And even then, the glass panel opened up at random during the night. When everyone was sleeping. So it's highly unlikely someone made it open."

"So it's probably either Monokuma controlling it, or completely random…" Arianna said.

"Pretty much…" Nonam replied.

"Actually!" Monokuma called out "It's all random, for the most part!" He let out a little laugh.

Xi shook his head. "Way to be ambiguous…"

"I try my best!"

Eliza let out a sigh "Let's just ignore him for now…"

Nonam resumed control of the conversation "So with it being so random, we can't be sure the killer had a say in it. But we also can't say they DIDN'T have a say in it. The only thing we found was a live map. But that might have not have been the only thing…"

"There wasn't much else they could use…" Chase brought up. "We didn't find anything else"

"Yeah, but the map didn't do anything. I tested it out myself!" Delilah said.

"How do we even know you are telling the truth…?" Chase looked at her.

"W-what?" Delilah was taken aback "are you accusing me!?"

 _No, I think she is telling the truth, because..._

"I tried to change the maze from the map. But it didn't work. It was just a screen. So it wasn't interactive…" Nonam said.

"Oh, alright. My bad Delilah." Chase said.

"Dick"

"Bitch"

"Fucker"

"Cunt"

"Eggnog"

"What?"

"Moving on!" Eliza said impatiently. "We should talk about the events of last night!"

"Yes. The events of last night would help with what happened" Arianna said "We split into three watch groups. The first one, contained Chase, Delilah, and Xi. The second one consisted of Eliza, and Marisa. And the last one, Nonam and I. As for the groups that were formed by the maze. Chase, Marisa, Xi, and me. And for the other side; Delilah, Eliza, and Nonam."

"However…" he started "We were never woken up. Which leads me to believe some thing happened during the the second watch…"

"It did!" Eliza said "The glass panel lowered, for one. Then, suddenly. I think both me and Marisa were knocked out…"

"Then whoever did all of this must have taken Eliza and hid her…" Nonam said.

"And returned back with everyone else…" Delilah said.

"It could very well still be Marisa who did that…" Xi said.

"What? Why?" Eliza crossed her arms.

Xi chuckled "She could have knocked you out and brought you somewhere. And then pretend like she was also knocked out."

"S-she would never!" Eliza yelled at him "She's not like that!"

"Well, did any of you see her with an injured head?" Xi said.

 _Well… not when she woke u- wait. We only saw the injuries she had after we found her dead body! How is that? What were hiding her injuries?_

"Her hat…" Nonam mumbled "When she woke up this morning. She was wearing her hat, and was clutching her head. We didn't notice her injuries because of the hat. But when we found her later, she had it removed, so we saw the injury…"

"Makes sense…" Xi said "I noticed that Eliza has taken up to wearing it."

Eliza her the top of her eyes with it "S-so what…"

"Nothing. Just an observation." Xi looked back at everyone else. "So someone attacked Marisa while she was on the East side and trapped her in the room. But how did Eliza acquire her hat?"

"When I found her, it was in the locker with her… She was on the North-West" Nonam said. "Which gives two possibilities. Marisa found Eliza, the unlikely situation. And the most likely one, is that the killer went back to Eliza after they activated the timer…"

"And it's unlikely that Marisa went to see Eliza because they were on opposite ends?" Chase asked.

Xi smirked "Yes…" He started to think some more. "So let's assume that the killer went to dispose of Eliza after…"

"D-dispose of me? W-why?" She stumbled through her words.

Arianna chimed in "Well I don't think they would just kidnap you to separate the group… I feel like they had a different motive for that…"

"Well, she could have originally been the intended target…" Xi suggested.

 _Original target… could that be it?_

"I-I could have been the original target?" Eliza mumbled. "W-who would want to kill me?"

"Same person who killed Marisa…" Xi said coldly.

"But why would Marisa end up dead?" Arianna started to think.

"The killer probably had to change targets for one reason or another…" Delilah said.

"That could have happened. But why were they found on opposite ends. The killer wouldn't have had time to go back and forth…" Nonam started to think.

"I don't know! You tell me" Delilah crossed her arms.

"Well I don't have the answers to everything…" He mumbled.

"It probably has to do with the map…" Xi said.

"The map?" Nonam started to think.

"We all went our own ways throughout the the maze. But it felt like we had no choice but to press forward…" He said.

"We did…" Nonam said.

"Press forward? What exactly do you mean by that?" Chase asked.

 _The thing about the maze at the time is..._

"Well, the East side of the maze wasn't really a maze at all. It was linear. So you had only one way to go, and that was the Wind Room, the scene of the murder" Nonam said.

"Wait, did you say… one way?" Chase looked like he realized something.

"Yes… Did you realize something?" Nonam asked him.

"I… I don't know…" Chase said. "I need more time to think…"

Nonam looked back at the others "Well, let's go back about the map. I didn't mention this before, but I remember two cords were cut. They were marked 'T' and 'L'. But that's all it said. I think it highly as to do with the case…"

"Well it should… "Arianna said "If it's connected to the map, then of course it has to do with it."

Nonam started to think "However, I don't know what it had to do with it…"

"Well let's figure that out now…" Xi said.

.

"Well, we know for a fact it helps the map out…" Arianna said.

"But what oh what do the letters mean…?" Xi started to think. "Location could be one of them…"

"W-what if one of them standed for touch…" Eliza suggested.

"Oooo! Transceiver for T" Delilah said.

"No…" Arianna said.

"..." Chase did not participate in this conversation. Rip

"Well, L could also mean Live" Xi suggested.

.

"Now that I think of it! L would be live, as the map never updated to what the maze now was. It still showed the maze before the murder…" Nonam said. "And T, would be for touch!" He called out.

"But I thought we already debated it wasn't a touch screen…" Xi said.

"Well we only had Delilah's words to go off of…" Nonam looked over at her.

"Well it didn't work when I tried it" She said. "So unless there was a way to turn it on. Then it can't stand for touch!"

Nonam started to think.

 _No, I think she was the one to use it… and there's proof…_

Nonam looked right at Delilah "You were the only one who could have! You tested it in front of us and that was the only time someone could have used the panel. And it couldn't have been set up by someone from the other side. Because the glass panel was still there. You are the only person who could have!"

"That's just assuming someone dropped the glass panel in the first place! It's highly possible someone wasn't expecting it to drop down. And used it to their advantage." She crossed her arms.

"Well, that would only leave the first shift with that logic. Because no one would stay up for something they didn't know was going to happen."

"Marisa left the East side…" Chase said.

"What?" Nonam looked over at him.

Chase looked up at Nonam "When I was investigating the rooms, I saw her leave the East side. I had presumed she had reached a dead end. But now that I think about it… it was not. So she turned around and left for no reason… So she must have gone down a different path…"

"Well there were only really four other paths to go down. West was divided in North-West and South-West. And then there was the regular North and South…"

 _What direction would she have gone in…?_

Nonam thought deeply "I think she headed North West… It would explain a lot of the events that happened…"

"Wasn't Delilah hanging out in that area?" Xi brought up.

"Well I was, but I didn't see anyone go there. I sticked mostly to the West, on the Southside…" Delilah said.

"Well Marisa should have encountered the person who had taken Eliza. But what exactly was she planning on doing?" Nonam asked,

"P-probably to attack the killer" Eliza said.

"And what is that assumption on?" Xi asked.

Eliza looked nervous as she took off the had and showed what was inside. Inside was a knife inside a small sheath, neatly stuck to the top.

"So it would seem Miss Campbell had a weapon…" Xi said.

"B-but she wasn't going to use it on us!" Eliza defended "It was for the killer"

"Well, she must have been carrying it around long before we even arrived to the maze... " Xi pointed out.

"Y-yeah… so…?" Eliza looked down.

"She was probably carrying it around for self defense. Arti and David always carried around weapons…" Nonam said

"Fine…" Xi shook his head "Let's resume to the topic at hand. So Marisa went to interfere with the killer."

Nonam nodded "Right! Although there's was so little time between when we split up and when Marisa died. I'd say ten minutes had passed. How long into the search did Marisa leave?" He looked over at Chase.

"Less than a minute in…" He replied.

"So from the map we saw. The maze actually wasn't that long. We just got lost quickly yesterday. So it's reasonable for someone to move back and forth from one point to another. And since Chase was inspecting the classrooms. He probably wasn't always checking the hallways…"

"I wasn't… The classrooms were scattered around the hallway leading to the Wind Room. I also checked the closets that were there…"

"So Delilah could have easily have snuck past him…" Eliza said. "A-after she went to get me! She must have been caught by Marisa!"

"No! I wasn't! I didn't even go there!" Delilah said.

"Well you are the one who sent everyone off to the direction they went. Except…" Nonam started

 _Yeah… someone else besides Delilah chose where to investigate…_

.

"Marisa herself decided to investigate the East side." Nonam said "So it's strange that she suddenly even left there in the first place. So my only guess is that she knew that Delilah was up to something and followed her…"

"So that would explain her hat…" Eliza said.

"And the changed target…" Xi added.

"Enough! I didn't kill her!" Delilah yelled out. What was strange, was that there wasn't one hint of a lie.

"Then try and defend yourself better!" Nonam said.

"What even knocked them out?" Delilah asked.

 _What?_

"What knocked them out…?" Arianna started to think "There was nothing that could have been used to knock Eliza and Marisa out."

"Was there really nothing?" Nonam asked.

"D-do you still not believe me?" Delilah cried out.

 _It's not that I don't want to believe her. But the situation seemed completely in her hands!_

"Hmm…" Nonam started to think "I think I know what you used. It was the only thing that could have been used!"

 _And that object was..._

"You used one of the spears, before you placed them in the Wind Room…" Nonam said.

"The spears?" Eliza asked.

Nonam nodded. "Yeah, it would make sense. It was the only weapons we found. And even if we investigated them thoroughly, we wouldn't notice blood on them. Not in a room full of blood…"

"T-that doesn't prove anything!" Delilah cried out.

 _Alright, this is weird. Normally she would be more calm and collected about this. But now she is being irrational…_

Nonam started to think. "This also goes with how Xi reacted when he saw us. He looked at both me and you. Probably trying to figure out how we found the place so easily. Unless you stumbled upon it randomly, you shouldn't have found it so quickly, especially if you were exploring the West!"

"I didn't do it! You gotta believe me!" She kept saying.

Nonam shook his head. "Yelling won't help your case. If you did not do it! Then prove it!"

"This crime couldn't have been done by any of us!" She called out.

… _?_

"What… what do you mean?" He seemed sceptical. "So far, all the murders have been done by one of us!"

"But how would any of us carried all of those spears?" She cried out. There were way too many!"

"Well, of course they were already there…" Nonam said.

She shook her head. "If they were already on the floor, then how would I have found them? I was with you and Eliza the entire time!"

 _That is right… I was with her the entire time, she would have no time to find them._

"Then you placed them beforehand!" Chase yelled out.

"I wouldn't have been able to! Monokuma had it blocked off!" She was really fighting for her life.

"N-not true! Marisa found a way in. She pushed a panel into the wall!" Eliza pointed out.

Strangely enough, Monokuma stepped in. "Strangely enough, only Marisa ever pressed the panel."

 _Why is Monokuma stepping in here of all times?_

Delilah looked like she came to the sudden realization. "T-then Marisa had to have done i-"

"No!" Eliza called out. "She wouldn't do that!"

"B-but who else would?" Delilah took a few steps back.

Nonam started to think.

"Is it simply possible Monokuma let her into the maze?" Xi asked. "If so, that would explain a lot of things."

"Like what?" Chase turned to look at him.

"Well, Monokuma wouldn't just let her in. Unless…" Arianna was now in deep thought.

"Every trial, save for the third one, you've always asked Monokuma for help." Nonam pointed out. "Monokuma isn't quick on helping any of us. But you just gotta ask, and the answer comes to you."

"Duh! It's because I'm hot!" She giggled.

Monokuma joined in "Also, I was just giving clarification on stuff. If anyone had asked, I would have answered."

"Then answer this!" Eliza called out. "Was the killer given access to this floor by you!"

"..."

Chase looked over at Monokuma "Hey, keeping silence puts us at a disadvantage, because your silence is-"

"I did not give the killer access to this floor." Monokuma said.

Xi thought a moment. "Did you give access to anyone else besides the killer?"

"..."

"Well?" Xi smirked.

"Yes."

 _What the hell does that mean?_

"Well." Arianna started. She seemed bothered by what Monokuma said, but she still needed to get to the bottom of this case. "So someone did have access. So they could have easily placed the spears werever."

"And the person who placed them can't be Marisa, because the person who did asked permission to go." Eliza said.

Delilah pointed a finger at her. "She could have asked Monokuma about the panel! He would have said so if you asked." She said.

 _Said so if she asked…?_

"And how would you know that as fact?" Nonam asked. "Unless he gave you that information himself!"

"W-what!" Delilah seemed freaked out. "S-slip of the tongue!"

 _Yeah, a slip of the tongue that condemns you._

"For you to even remotely know that info!" Nonam called out. "It means you must be working with him!"

"Um… Um…" She started to freak out even more.

Eliza realized what Nonam was getting at. "And to be working with Monokuma! Must mean you are the traitor!"

The room fell silent, except for Delilah, who was freaking out.

 _Busted!_

"Y-you got it all wrong!" Delilah said.

"No, it's starting to make perfect sense. Someone would have killed you off by now." Chase said.

"R-rude!"

Arianna glared at Delilah. "A lot of things start making sense if you are the traitor! So why don't you just admit it!"

Then, Delilah fell silent. "..."

Chase sneered. "Got nothing to say?"

"..."

"S-speak! You killed Marisa and betrayed us all!" Eliza said.

"..."

Xi scoffed. "What a crazy bitch."

"..."

"Delilah," Nonam started. "Just speak!"

"What's the point?" She said, looking at the ground.

"Huh?"

"What's the point in fighting against it?" She looked up at Nonam.

"Well if it's wro-"

"Alright!" Her mood seem to completely change. "What if I am the traitor? What exactly are you going to do?"

Eliza pointed at her. "S-so you are the traitor!"

"Yeah, I guess I am." She smiled.

Chase sent glares towards her. "Then why aren't you scared that we caught you?"

She gave off a smug shrug, which seemed out of character for her. "Who knows? Maybe I wanted to get caught?"

"Why would you want to be caught?" Arianna asked.

"Hmm, I sense a trap." Xi looked over at Monokuma, who had gone silent now.

Delilah gave off another shrug. "Sense what you want."

"No." Nonam started to think. "I think he is right. This is a trap, everything lead up to this reveal. And it seems to perfect!"

Delilah simply stared at Nonam with an evil smirk.

 _She was planning something… but what? No, I can't let my mind wander. We got the traitor right in front of us, and we can't let her escape! But, but why does it feel like everything will go wrong?_

.

.

.

Class Trial…

Interlude…

.

.

.

"Delilah, what's your end goal?" Nonam asked her.

"My, end goal?" She tilted her head. "Oh, to take care of some troublesome ends!"

"W-was Marisa one of those ends!" Eliza called out.

"She was." Delilah smiled. "Although I was going to let her live." She sighed. "If only she hadn't gone after me, she wouldn't be dead. Well, I mean, you would be, but that's not the issue."

"W-w-what! H-hey!" Eliza called out. "That is definitely an issue!"

"No, I don't think that is the pressing issue." Xi said. "Monokuma's words are what the pressing issue is."

"In which way?" Chase crossed his arms.

"Do you not remember what he said?" Xi looked over at Chase.

.

 _Monokuma joined in "Also, I was just giving clarification on stuff. If anyone had asked, I would have answered."_

" _Then answer this!" Eliza called out. "Was the killer given access to this floor by you!"_

" _..."_

 _Chase looked over at Monokuma "Hey, keeping silence puts us at a disadvantage, because your silence is-"_

" _I did not give the killer access to this floor." Monokuma said._

 _Xi thought a moment. "Did you give access to anyone else besides the killer?"_

" _..."_

" _Well?" Xi smirked._

" _Yes."_

.

"So if you gave Delilah access to the top floor, but not the killer. Does that mean Delilah is not the killer?" Xi looked at Monokuma, now.

Delilah giggled a little. "Of course I'm not the killer! Would little ol' me kill som-"

"Yes"

"Bitch"

"Slu-"

"We don't have time for this!" Eliza shouted abruptly. "W-what do you mean you aren't the killer!?"

"Did you not hear what Monokuma said? The killer didn't come to this floor before everyone else!" She giggled some more. "Which means, I'm not the killer!"

"T-then who is?" Chase was starting to freak out.

"Duuuh! It's one of you five idiots!" She giggled even more. She tilted her head and winked. "Like I'd actually murder someone directly! I've been pushing people around for a while now!"

"W-what do you mean by that?" Eliza asked.

"Well, before the first death, I placed a bomb in a random locker. And eventually Christopher found it!" She giggled.

Arianna crossed her arms, sending daggers in Delilah's direction.

"Next was, oh! When I made Jenna even more jealous of Terra. And we know how that panned out." She smiled. "Then I might have told Tristan about the library elevator. And maybe something else." She shrugged. "Who knows? Next, was Arti. I told him there was a gun in the training room. I, of course, placed it there. As the traitor, I get unlimited amount of weapons!" She laughed crazily.

"W-why would you ever side with Monokuma!" Eliza cried out.

"For my own survival, nothing personal. I just value my life over everyone's else!" She gave a warm smile. It would be genuine, had Delilah not been the one to give it. "I made the deal when I first got into the gym. Before meeting him, I kinda walked in on him doing stuff. So he struck me a deal. Of course I accepted! I would be crazy not to."

"But haven't you done enough!" Arianna shouted.

She started to think. "Well, this is my last mission! To take out a medlessom person! Any guesses on who that could possible be?" She tilted her head.

"I-it doesn't matter! There is no way you could have set someone up like that!" Elza yelled out.

"Pfft!" Delilah tilted her head. "It was much easier than you would expect. Especially if the person I set up wasn't very smart."

Everyone looked over at Chase.

"Oh what the fuck!" He mumbled.

"No, it's not Chase." Delilah shook her head. I mean they are pretty smart, but they are sometimes blinded by-"

Xi sent a glare towards Delilah. "Just say who it is."

She sent a wink towards Xi. "It's more fun if you guess!"

"Stop thinking this is some kind of game!" Chase yelled at her. "Our lives are on the line here, and you are just going to have fun the entire time!"

"Well duh!" She giggled again. "Life itself is a game! Skill trees, level ups, bosses, except you can't legally kill those. But that just adds to the excitement!" She smiled innocently.

"A-a-are you admitting to killing before?" Eliza squirmed.

"What? Oh heavens no!" She seemed somewhat offended. "I could never kill someone, directly…" She brought a finger to her sly smirk.

"Enough of this bullshit!" Chase was getting increasingly angry.

"Fiiiine!" She pouted sadly. "The person I set up to activate the kill is…" She waited a bit of dramatic affect. "Nonam!" She now had her smile back.

 _What_.

That's what everyone wanted to say, however, the mood didn't allow for it to even be said. No one could speak.

 _She can't be serious, but, what if she is… I don't think she would lie, especially if it's true about the fact that she set someone else up. Because her life is in danger if she's lying!_

"W-what! Nonam didn't activate any trap!" Arianna said.

"Exactly!" Chase yelled out.

 _Or did I… think Nonam, think!_

"Honestly, I can't believe you didn't think I would catch on to your lie." Xi shook his head.

"What lie?" She tilted her head. "Oh! You mean you knew I was the traitor from the beginning?"

"Well, no, but-" Xi seemed like he had already lost the argument.

"You can't see through me anymore, Xi." Delilah said coldly. "Many have tried, but non have been able to do it. Well, besides one, but that was the past. This, is now." Her tone was way more serious now.

 _Anymore? What does she mean by that. None of this is adding up with what I know._

"Alright." Nonam sighed. "I guess it's me, I don't think she would lie. Especially if she didn't kill Marisa."

"I-I refuse to believe this!" Eliza shouted out. "It's too convenient for her! Having someone else do the murder she planned?"

"It's the truth." Delilah pouted.

"I don't think she is lying!" He said.

Arianna shook her head. "Nonam! Listen to yourself! You can't be the killer, even if it was set up. The evidence shows the story!"

 _Yeah, but there's also evidence showing that someone needed to be set up._

"Alright, if it's not me. Which one of you did it?" Nonam was now getting serious. "Go on, speak!"

But no one did. No one wanted to say anything. They didn't want to.

"That's about as much as I thought." Nonam said. "Now let's get to proving that it was m-"

"Nonam." Arianna started. "I'm going to have to go against you in order to save you."

"Arianna! Don't do this!" Nonam shook his head.

"S-so will I! I still think Delilah is lying!" Eliza mumbled.

"Am nooot!" She pouted.

"You've lead two trials already. A third one counting this one, so I'm not going to let you get caught in this trap…" Chase rubbed the back of his head.

"Who else will I torment?" Xi shrugged.

 _Guys, please, stop!_

"Is this what I think it is?" Monokuma tilted his head.

"What's what?" Chase asked.

"It sounds like you guys are split! Well, unevenly split, but split nonetheless!" He laughed a little. "We are pr-"

Xi shook his head. "Just get to it already."

"Hmmp! Fine!" Monokuma sounded a little dejected, but took out his key anyways. He placed it in the lock and turned the key. Suddenly, the trial ground started to lift up in the air, dividing the remaining people into two groups.

.

.

.

 **Was Nonam set up?**

.

.

.

 **No he wasn't!**

.

Arianna

Chase

Eliza

Xi

.

.

.

 **Yes he was!**

.

Delilah

Nonam

.

"There's absolutely no way that Nonam could have triggered something!" Eliza called out.

"Aww sweetie, you weren't even there to see what happened." Delilah smirked.

"Yeah, but I was. And Nonam didn't do anything." Chase said.

"Delilah wouldn't have made it easy to see, or else I wouldn't have fallen for it." Nonam pointed out.

"Yeah, but the timer had already started." Arianna said.

"Even then, I don't think she would have enough time to escape after it started. So it must not have been her that said it up!" Nonam yelled out, feeling bad about going up against Arianna.

"She would have if she hide in a classroom!" Chase said.

"Why would I do that? And plus, I had set up the timer to start at the given time." Delilah smirked.

"Tsk tsk! Don't be naive Nonam, surely you must have noticed something was off if you were being tricked. But as of yet, you haven't noticed anything." Xi smirked.

"Like he said, I made sure whatever traces I left weren't suspicious!" Delilah giggled.

"There was nothing at the scene of the crime that could be set up as a trap!" Arianna pointed out.

"Are you just choosing to forget. The closet thing on the scene was string, which was probably used in the trap." Nonam crossed his arms.

"But all three doors had strings on them" Chase pointed out.

"Well I had to be EXTRA sure it would work!" Delilah giggled.

.

"It wouldn't matter if all three doors were trapped! I stepped in first so I activated the trap!" Nonam said.

Arianna shook her head. "Anyone could have walked in first! What makes you so sure that you did? And what would have guaranteed you walk there anyways?"

"Well for one, the maze was linear, and now that I think about it." Nonam started to think. "I had probably the shortest path to the room, further proving that I was Delilah's intended target for being framed."

"Y-yeah, but what made you go further down the path?" Eliza asked him.

"What do you mean?" He looked over at him.

She crossed her arms. "Why didn't you eventually turn back?"

"Well, I was thinking of turning back soon, but I saw some blood on the wall, leading towards the Wind Room. So that probably kept me going."

"Well, if someone was going faster than you?" Arianna said. "They, they would have reached the room first."

"What exactly are you implying?" Nonam looked at her.

"What do you think I'm implying?" Arianna crossed her arms.

 _What do I think she is implying? I think she's implying…_

"Are, you implying that you entered first?" Nonam asked.

She nodded seriously "Yes! That's exactly what I'm implying."

Delilah was looking at Arianna, staring deep into her eyes. "Stay out of this, bitch." She said it so coldly.

"I will not!" She glared at Delilah.

Eliza put her hands to her head. "Why is it turning out like this? Why couldn't it have just been Delilah!"

"Because I'm too smart." She giggled.

"Nonam." Delilah looked at him. "Don't listen to Arianna." She smirked devilishly.

"Shut up Delilah!" Arianna shouted. "I'm the one that activated the trap!"

"There was something different about your door. I didn't make it obvious, of course." She continued to smirk.

 _What was different about my door? Is that what I need to prove to Arianna? But, she doesn't want to listen at all!_

"The way the door opened. Both yours and Chase opened into the room. However, now that I think about it, the door I entered from opened outwards.

.

 _Soon, he reached a door. An ominous door. He hadn't seen this door before, however, there was something odd about it. On the other side, beeping noise could be heard._

What is this?

 _He opened the door towards him and stepped in._

.

"I stupidly deduced that my door was the same, forgetting that it had opened outwards. It's probably why Delilah set it up in a way that only I could activate it. Opening it inwards wouldn't pulled on the cord and snapped it. Opening it outwards would have. I'm sorry Arianna, but I did activate it, and there's nothing you can say to disprove it…"

She didn't want to look at Nonam; She was too busy staring at the floor.

"Arianna, please, don't try and protect me. Live for yourself. You do deserve to live way more than me. So please prove to everyone else why I'm the culprit."

She slowly looked up and nodded. "Alright…"

.

Act 1: The events that unfolded this morning actually started yesterday. Long before we had met up in the cafeteria, like usual. Delilah, the traitor, had gathered some stuff she would need for a murder. A murder, that she would not commit. She made her way to the top floor of the school, and, with permission from Monokuma, entered Forever Maze. There, she hid the spears, string, rope, and tape, that would later be used for the murder. Once she was done, she left the floor and stayed at the cafeteria for a bit.

.

Act 2: Once everyone started to get there. Eliza made a speech of sorts, Delilah, strangely supporting her the entire way. The suggesting to explore the fifth floor was passed around a few times. Delilah and a few others were all for it. However, this was just the start of Delilah's trap. Everyone made it to the fifth floor. However, we soon found ourselves trapped there. It didn't take long for Marisa to find a way out, of sorts. What we had found, was Forever Maze.

.

Act 3: Not long into the maze, we got seperated. The two groups formed by the seperations was; Me, Chase, Marisa, Xi; and Delilah, Eliza, and, the killer of this case. We spent time away for several hours, exploring the maze. However, it would have appeared we were just going in circles. After walking for a bit, we settled down against a wall. Little did we know, the other group was on the other side.

Act 4: Delilah soon noticed a map on the wall. She was excited and wanted to see if they could change the maze. At the time she said we couldn't, however, that was a lie that we all fell for. Since it was starting to get late, we decided to call it a night. However, since we were all outside our rooms, it was easy for someone to be killed. So we made three night watch teams. The first was composed of Chase, Delilah, and Xi. The second, of Eliza and Marisa. The last, of me and the culprit. But, we never got woken up until the morning announcement.

.

Act 5: After the first team shift ended, Xi went to sleep. Delilah woke up Eliza, and Chase woke up Marisa. However, someone who should have gone back to sleep, hadn't. Delilah had stayed up, ready to put her plan in action. She had set it up so that the glass panel between both groups would lower. Once it did, she struck Marisa on the head, and then immediately hit Eliza, who had no time to react.

.

Act 6: She took her away towards the North West of the map, and hid her in a locker. Now, it was time to set up. She took out the spears that she had brought previously, as well as all the other stuff she had brought. She made her way to the Wind Room, where she set all the spears inside the holes in the wall. She set the timer to start at 38 seconds. She returned and went back to sleep, like nothing had happened.

.

Act 7: The Monokuma morning announcement played, which woke everyone up. The first thing that was of note, was that Eliza was gone. Delilah, sprinting into action, ran over to the map. She looked to see if it had changed to how she wanted it to; it had. She soon told where people were to go. She specifically told the culprit to go North, so they would get caught in the trap. She decided herself to go West. And Marisa decided to go East. Everyone else was picked by Delilah.

.

Act 8: Once Marisa had left enough time pass, she left the East side to head over to the West side. She soon came face to face with Delilah, who had an unconscious body. The body of Eliza. Quickly putting two and two together, Marisa went to attack Delilah with the knife she had hidden. What she didn't expect, was for Delilah to pull out a spear out from the locker and swing her upside the head. This knocked Marisa out for the second time. Now, Delilah had to improvise.

.

Act 9: Delilah placed Eliza back in the locker, as well as Marisa's hat. Now, she had to hurry, and make it through Chase. But that was no problem, as he was too busy inside a classroom to even notice her passing. Although this does raise the question, what would she have done had Marisa still been there.

.

Act 10: Once she made it to the room, she placed Marisa on a chair. Carefully tying her up so she couldn't escape. She even tapped her mouth shut and put a bag over her head. She finished setting up everything else in the room, she left. She made sure to add blood on to the wall to lure the culprit, who still had a bit before he would show up. I don't know where she got the blood-"

.

"I cut my stomach a few times!"

.

"... Moving on…"

.

Act 11: She quickly got the hell out of there so that she could be as far away as possible from the scene of the crime, for when it happens. Meanwhile, the culprit, Chase, and I, all started to make our move towards the room. The culprit was getting lured in by the blood on the walls. I was rushing over to the room, because I thought for sure Eliza would be there. And Chase must have had the same thought. Because of that, we both arrived around the time the culprit did.

.

Act 12: However, everything was set in stone the moment the culprit opened the door. You see, the door was set up with a string that would pull on a mechanism, if the door was opened. So when they went to check inside, they triggered it. Chase and I tried to stop what was happening, but we were unsuccessful. And Marisa was killed right in front of us. Except we didn't know it was her at the time, for we thought it was Eliza.

.

And that is how Delilah framed Nonam Nins, the Ultimate… The Ultimate…?"

.

.

.

"I…" Eliza started. "We never did find out his talent."

"The Ultimate Mimic!" Delilah giggled.

"The Ultimate what?" Arianna looked at her.

She seemed somewhat mad that someone made her repeat. "I said the Ultimate Mimic! Gosh, don't make me repeat again!"  
"Basically, I can copy certain talents if I wanted to." Nonam said. "Like I copied the ability to lock pick from Xi. I had a mini sword fight with Arti and managed to keep up. All my investigation skills came from Marisa. I was able to act way better because of Arianna, which I used during my entire stay here. It's how I was able to act like I am now. I also even used Tristan's talent." He took out a mouse from his shirt. "This is how I was able to react to the elevator falling, it heard it long before I did, so I was able to save myself and Arianna."

Eliza looked over at him. "W-wait! That means you didn't forget your talent!"

He looked the other way. "I didn't want to draw suspicion on me."

"Well that just makes you more suspicious to us!" Chase yelled out.

Nonam shook his head. "Not to be less suspicious with you, to be less suspicious to him." He gestured towards Monokuma.

"What? Me?" He tilted his body.

"According to what he should know, I wouldn't reveal my talent so easily." Nonam said.

"Well what does that mean!" Monokuma blurted out.

He took a deep sigh and looked at everyone. "If I wasn't restrained by a lot of things, I could have said this a lot sooner. But, I never lost my memory. I don't know why I wasn't affected, but I remember everything."

"T-that's impossible!" Monokuma stood up. "I made sure to have stolen all of your memories!"

"Well apparently you missed me." He shook his head.

"Wow! How exciting!" Delilah giggled. "But that doesn't explain why you seemed so suspicious of some of us." She pouted. "Unless, the past Nonam needed to be suspicious of us!" She giggled. "I know what would help explain this!" She took something out. It was a motive video. She pressed the button on it.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Delilah Lyi. If it isn't! Keep watching anyways!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Nonam Nins! What is with him? Such a suspicious guy. But we will get to that later. Did you know that he can almost perform any talent? It's true! He's the Ultimate Mimic! And he lied about not knowing what his talent was. Apparently he got recruited for some thing involving all the other students of the class! I wonder what that is, but it can't possible be good for you!" Then the screen turned off.

.

"Recruited?" Arianna started to think.

"Hey!" Delilah yelled. "It's not over!" She pouted. "There's a second part of the video of the video! Oh! Right, I only told Tristan!" She giggled. She pressed the play button five times, and a new video started to play.

.

"Hello Nonam." A voice said.

The video showed Nonam sitting in a chair in an office. "Hello sir."

The man let out a cough. "So, you know why you are here, right?"

"You want to recruit me into your agency, sir?" He seemed pretty annoyed by this whole ordeal.

"Exactly. We are signing you off to join class. The 75th class to be exact. You are to be given the title of Ultimate Mimic, but none of the other students need to know that. However, your really talent is going to be the Ultimate Spy. Now under no condition can you tell them that. And also, don't trust anyone there. Understood?"

Nonam, seeming like he really didn't want to be there, stood up, walking away. "Understood…"

And then the video ended.

.

"Soooo~" Delilah giggled. "He's a spy sent to infiltrate our class. Which is why he needed to act suspicious of us. Or else Monokuma would catch on that he didn't forget. So acting like he did actually made him less suspicious to Monokuma! The irony." She dropped the video to the ground. "Anyways, discuss!"

Of course, no one really said anything.

"So why were you sent to spy on us?" Chase finally said.

"I… I was sent to spy on you guys bec-" Nonam was starting to say.

"Hey! Want to know what now would be a great time for?" Monokuma said. "A punishment!"

"H-hey! We haven't even voted yet!" Eliza said.

"What? You totally have!" He said, bringing out a fake board with votes. "And it's right! Now! Blah blah blah! Punishment time!"

"Hey! Wait!" Nonam shouted out.

But, it was too late.

.

Monokuma took out a small hammer, and hit the button in front of him.

Nonam has been found Guilty. Time for punishment.

.

Nonam was standing in a somewhat dim hallway. Wherever he was looking, he didn't see anything. However, he kept seeing stuff in his peripheral vision. But whenever he looked, they were gone. His hand brushed against his pocket and he realized that he was given a handgun. He quickly took it out and started shooting at the shadow figures around him. He assumed them to be some sort of spy. Soon, one grabbed him from behind, and dragged him into the shadows.

He awoke in a dark room, with a table in front of him. On the table was a bucket of water. Before he got time to react, his head was getting dunked into the water. He tried to resist but water quickly entered his mouth. Head out of water, head in water. So on, so forth. Since that wasn't working, they moved onto the next thing. Next, came the knife to the thigh. He got stabbed there multiple times, but still, no sound came out from him. They started removing his fingernails, one by one, in the most painful way they could do it. Nonam started to squirm around even more. Sadly, he didn't know that he had something in his mouth and he accidentally bit down on it. What he had bitten on, was a suicide pill, which killed him seconds later.

.

Everyone watching couldn't even keep looking at the screen. They had just witnessed Nonam being tortured, before being taken out by himself.

 _W-what the hell!_

"What the hell was that, Monokuma?!" Arianna shouted at him.

"Hmm? What, he was causing me the most problems. Either that or Marisa, who knows." He took out something and tossed it at Delilah. "Here!"

Delilah caught it, and when she opened her hand, it was revealed to be a USB key.

"I don't know why you wanted a USB full of that kind of stuff, but I don't judge." Monokuma shrugged.

She pouted a little. "I get lonely at times. You know, since everyone keeps dying!" She crossed her arms, like it was a burden to her.

"What the fuck!" Arianna glared at Delilah. "Don't just treat them dying like a burden!"

She let out a shrug with a giggle. "Well I mean, they didn't really matter in the long run."

That was it. Arianna ran over to Delilah to attack her. Although that didn't end well.

 _WHACK!_

Arianna had been hit by a cut off piece of a spear that Delilah hid in the back of her shirt. It was short enough to fit in her pilot uniform. Although this didn't knock her out. But she was bleeding from the mouth.

"Arianna!" Eliza shouted, running towards her. Chase, following close behind her. They both brought her back to her feet.

Xi didn't like the direction this was heading in. "I think it's best if we leave. Seeing her will only piss me off more." Somehow, even Xi was angry at Delilah. Probably because he had trusted her a lot and she went and did this. Soon, everyone left, leaving Delilah and Monokuma alone.

"I honestly don't know why you would do all that for that useless USB." Monokuma said.

"I'm guessing you checked it?" She giggled.

"Of course I checked it! I can't letting you have info that you shouldn't know!" He said.

She tilted her head "Alright!" She walked over to the elevator and waited for it to come back. Once in, she looked down at the USB. She frowned sadly.

.

.

.

Her voice was kinda different from all her other voices, rather normal and calm, which wasn't normal for her. "Time to end this…" She sighed sadly. Her facial expression had also completely changed. Weird.


	12. Chapter 6: Stand Separated - Part 1

Everyone besides Delilah was at the cafeteria, no one, wanting to say anything. The mood was somber. They had found the traitor, but at what cost? Not only at the lost of Marisa and Nonam, but they also lost Delilah has a friend. She was no longer considered a part of the group.

Arianna looked around at everyone. Only five people were left alive. And she could only trust two of them. Three if she trusted Xi, but she was on the fence about him. Delilah, however, was a complete lost case and she would need to perform a miracle to be able to trust her again.

"So w-was that the last one?" Eliza said weakly.

"The last what?" Chase asked.

She slowly put down her spoon. "The last trial. Monokuma said so…"

"No way we can believe that bear!" Chase said.

Xi leaned towards the table. "Well, what if it is the last trial? He wouldn't lie to an audience he so much claims to have."

"I'm still not going to believe him!" Chase said.

"Aww come on!" Monokuma said, suddenly on a chair right beside Chase. "Why don't you believe me?"

Chase almost hit Monokuma, had he not realized that it was Monokuma. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I live here! I'm the headmaster! I'm allowed to be here!" He shouted.

"Just get it over with." Arianna glared at him.

Monokuma looked over at Arianna. "Wow, so scary!"

Eliza lowered the hat to cover the top part of her eyes. "Well we don't want you here…"

"I just came here to say congratulations on surviving the killing game!" He laughed out. "Now there doesn't need to be anymore killing!"

"Yeah, but you won't let us out, I presume." Xi said.

"Well, no." Monokuma said. "But hey! You can all live happily ever after, now!"

"H-hey!" Eliza said. "We want out!"

"Too bad!" He shouted. "You should have killed someone before you reached this point!"

"W-we'd never do that!" Eliza said.

"Well that sounds like a personal problem!" He laughed out. "You had ample amount of time! Don't blame me for your cowardice!"

"Can you just leave?" Chase crossed his arms.

This made him a little sad. "I thought you'd all be happy about the good news. Oh well! I'm off!" He was going to disappear when suddenly.

"Hold on!" A voice called out.

Everyone turned to see who it was, although they all knew who it was.

"I have a proposal." Delilah winked at everyone. "There's just so much mystery left to solve!"

Everyone stood up in a defensive way, like they were ready to defend themselves against Delilah.

"Hey, don't worry! I won't hurt you!" Although her eyes told a different story. "I just want to ask Monokuma something!"

"And what would that be?" He brought his arm to his face in a thinking manner.

She let out a low giggle. "A class trial to end class trials! One were we go over almost everything that happened here. If they get it right, they can discover all the hidden secrets, they can be let free. If they fail to discover the hidden secrets, then they stay here, and the killing game resumes!" She smirked.

"Hmm, that does sound interesting." Monokuma started to think.

Chase looked back and forth at the two of them. "No way we are falling for that!"

"But, wouldn't it be wise?" Xi asked, looking at Chase. "It shouldn't be too hard to find out stuff. But someone has to make it fair." He glanced over at Monokuma.

He tilted his head "What, fair? Of course I'll play fair if we do this! Actually, all you ever needed to find out the truth have been hidden in the open this entire time. You people are just really blind!"

"I'm not signing up for this!" Chase said.

Eliza shook her head "M-me neither! There's no way we can figure everything out."

Delilah crossed her arms and pouted "Aww man! That's not fair, the votes are two-two. If only we had a fifth per- oh heeey Arianna!" She giggled, tilting her head. "I didn't see you there!"

Arianna looked at the table thinking.

 _What should I do… dammit… I don't really have a choice._

She slowly nodded. "I also agree to these terms."

"YAY!" Delilah shouted, hugging Arianna from behind.

This, of course, ended exactly as you expected. Delilah got slapped by Arianna, leaving her handprint on her face.

"Alright!" Monokuma said. "It's settled. Time for me to hide clues around." He stood there for a good second. "Done."

"There's no way you just placed clues." Chase yelled out.

"Can't place what's already placed. What I'm saying is. You had all the clues you need to solve this mystery right in front of you!" He said. "Anyways! Goodbye!" With that, the bear vanished.

Delilah tilted her head. "I would suggest we each explore a floor. But I'm not doing any investigation, and I think someone else will just end up investigating all the floors anyways." She eyed Arianna. "Anyways! Bye!" She walked out of the cafeteria.

 _What did I sign myself up for._

Chase let out a sigh. "Man, this is going to be more difficult. We don't even know what we are actually looking for."

"I-I'm sure we will find it anyways." Eliza said. "Let's go!" She stood up and walked away.

Soon, Arianna was the only one left in the cafeteria.

 _Well, I guess the rooms are a good place to start. I could watch all the secondary videos. As well, as some of the videos I haven't seen._

She walked out of the cafeteria and made it to where the rooms were. She looked at them all. Except one, they appeared to all be open for easy access. Probably done by Monokuma. She let out a low sigh.

 _I guess I should check, Nonam's room first._

She slowly walked into his room. It's like it was last time. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The video Nonam had was currently on his table, the reseting spot it normally went too. She grabbed it and pressed the play buttons five times, then, a video started to play.

.

The video showed Chase, sitting on a chair in what seemed like a dark room. He was seemingly annoyed by a person. "I told you, I did leave her alone, I don't know what you are getting on with."

Who ever he was talking to let out a low sigh. "According to her, you kept stalking her and stuff. Her words carry more weight than yours."

"Well then she's fucking lying. Once she made me aware of how I was bothering her, I stopped!" Chase yelled at the man.

"Like I said, she tells a different story. And the place you said you should have been around the time has been proven to be false. You'd have no reason to lie unless you were hiding something" The man said.

Chase brought his hand to his temple. "You also seem to not have proof that I did stalk her that night."

"I'm pretty sure we can find some." The man said. Then, the video ended.

.

"Well, that was enlightening." She said sarcastically.

 _That does go with what was said in the first video, however._

She walked out of Nonam's room and looked over at which room she should go next.

"Well, I don't think this room should contain anything useful. But, oh well…" She walked over to Christopher's room. It was a normal room, which would be a given with someone with a useless talent as the Ultimate Lucky Student. But something did catch her eye; On his table, a motive video lie there.

"What?" She walked over to it. "Why does he have a motive video?" Not wanting to waste time, she pressed the play button.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Christopher Hides! If he was still alive that is. What an idiot, being the first killer. It's almost laughable. Anyways, if someone somehow breaks into his room, here's what it would have said about him had he still been alive. What's with him? Apparently he wasn't the original person to whom the Ultimate Lucky Student should have went to. Apparently, some awful tragedy happened to the original one, so Christopher was next up in line. Weird. Monokuma, out!" And with that, the video ended.

.

"Hmm, so I guess Monokuma had some motives lined up. And he fixed it according to who was still alive after the first murder happened." Arianna said. "That would mean that Catrina would have one too…" She said to herself. Not wanting to waste more time, she pressed the play button five times.

"Hello there, Christopher Hide." A woman said, taking a seat in the camera view. "You must know why you are here."

"Not really…" Christopher said, probably having no idea.

The woman slowly shook her head. "We are here to discuss how you acquired the title of Ultimate Lucky Student. The one that should have been went missing, so we needed to redo the draw, since that disqualifies the previous one."

"Yeah, and I won the second one, right?" Christopher asked.

"You did. However, there shouldn't have been a second draw in the first place. The girl only went missing after she won the draw. So if someone was targeting her, then it doesn't make sense why you aren't being targeted."

"Maybe she had an enemy that was mad she got accepted to the school?" He suggested.

The woman let out a sigh. "Possibly." She closed her book and the video ended.

.

 _Nothing useful again. But like the other one, Christopher seem to also be under suspicious of something._

Nothing else was of note in the room, so she left. The next room she entered belonged to Catrina. This one was vastly different. It was lined with music posters, and a lot of black and purple. Apparently some students got lucky and got a customized room made for them. But not all of them. She, like Christopher, had a video on her table. She grabbed it and pressed play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Catrina Rwuicks! If she was still alive that is. What an idiot, being the first killed. It's almost laughable. Anyways, if someone somehow breaks into her room, here's what it would have said about her, had she still been alive. What's with her? She's an amazing DJ. However, an event happened a while back that really put a dent in her reputation. When she apparently took an entire room under control with her music. What a bad day. Monokuma, out!" The video screen turned off.

.

 _Hmmm, still not fully useful. But still worth taking note of it. Alright, next part._

She pressed the play button five times to activate the second video.

.

The video was taken by a, presumingly, a phone based on the video quality. And the fact that is was moving around. The scene appeared to be shot at a music venue. Although the video was muted for good reasons. Suddenly, everyone who was cheering stopped doing so, and let their arms fall to their side, like mindless zombies. On stage, a very scared and confused Catrina could be seen. Then the video abruptly ended.

.

 _What… was THAT. Well, now's not the time to dwell on it. I should head over to the next room._

The next room, of course, being Jenna. Her room had more of a lab feel to it. Although just seeing her room made her mad. She quickly grabbed the Monopad and pressed play five times.

.

The video seemed to be in the office of a school. Terra was leaning back in her chair, somewhat angry. "Look, I already said I don't want to attend your damn school!"

A man seemed disappointed at her answer. "But we would love to have you here. This school creates hope, as you know."

She leaned towards whoever was interviewing her. "You seem to not understand my words! I don't give a fuck. Simply as that, I'd rather go to school with people I know, than go to a school full of people who think they are amazing." With that, she got up and left the room.

"God… dammit…" The person interviewing her said. He looked down at an article which showed a dead student. A quick glance at the article would show that Terra is a possible suspect, having been close friends with the victim, but nothing was proven yet. The video then ended.

.

 _I'm… going to choose to ignore that last part. But dammit, it's probably important._

She made her way to another room, that one being Terra's. She looked around the room. It was still the same as that one time she went in. She looked over at the Monopad that was on the table, gulping a little bit. If she remembered correctly, that video was about her. She walked over to it and grabbed it. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the play button five times.

.

The video played a very familiar memory she had. It was the night she was first spotted by the school. But this was before the play started, this was back in like 2032. So three years ago.

"Has anyone seen Rebecca Mariel?" The director asked.

Arianna looked up at the director. "I haven't" She was only probably 12 or 13 at the time, but was already in theatre.

"Dammit! She hasn't shown up yet! Fuck it! Arianna, get ready. You are taking over the lead role." The director started to walk away.

"R-really?" She asked, happily. Then, the video ended.

.

Arianna didn't have much to say about this one. She was about to leave when the the Monopad she had just watched, played a third video.

.

The video showed Terra adjusting the camera of something. "So apparently these things also have a record function, who knew?" She looked away, seemingly annoyed. "Well, the person who told me that it can do that also asked me to make a sort of mixture. That person was-" It cut off temporarily. "This is mostly for insurance that it isn't used on me. The name should give away what it does. It's called the-" Once again, it cut off. "So be on the lookout for something like that. Anyways, I got places to be. I'm heading off to the pool!" Then the video ended.

.

 _The… pool…_

Arianna's heart sank as she knew what happened right after.

 _What mixture is she talking about? It can't possibly be the glue. She wouldn't waste her time making that. So it must be something else…_

Not wanting to stay any longer, she left Terra's room. Then, she walked into Larissa's room. She knew for a fact she hadn't seen any part of Larissa's video. She quickly grabbed her video and pressed play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Larissa Banks. If it isn't! Keep watching anyway!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Arti Fyshal! What is with him? He's a good swordsman. He normally uses it for sparring. However, doesn't mean he's never used it on a defenseless person. Puhuhuhu. What a poor mess he made that lad into. Monokuma, out!" The video then ended.

.

 _So, she got Arti's video. I see it didn't make her trust him less. Huh…_

She pressed play five times to activate the next video.

.

The video was being taken by a moving camera, like the person holding it was running. Soon, they turned an alleyway to see two people pretty much fighting. Although one had a clear advantage. Because of the low quality of the camera, it wasn't picking up audio correctly. But Arti was clearly seen trapping someone in the alleyway, his sword, already stained with blood. When he turned around to look at the person recording, the footage cut off.

.

 _Well that was rather, interesting._

She didn't bother staying in her room any longer. Once out, she made it to Gabriel's room. Who, was probably the nicest looking room so far. But now's not the time to be distracted. She grabbed his video and looked at the screen.

 _This one is about Eliza, huh?_

With that, she pressed play five times.

.

The scene was at a restaurant. It showed three rich people eating at a table and laughing. That is until one of the men started choking on something. He coughed pretty erratically and soon, fell down on the table dead. A younger Eliza, hearing the commotion, ran out of the kitchen to see what happened.

"W-what happened?" She started to freak out.

One of the men started investigating the plate of the deceased. "Hold on a second." He grabbed a handful of beans and showed them to Eliza. "These are castor beans! Are you the one who made his food?"

"Y-yes, but-" She mumbled lowly.

"Then you added these beans!" He cried out. "They are toxic!"

"B-b-b-but I didn't!" She cried out.

Then the video ended.

.

 _Castor beans? Hmm… Never heard of those. But it could be important to note._

She left Gabriel's room and headed towards Arti's room. She hadn't seen his room first hand. But like she heard, it was lined up with various swords. But he mostly stuck to his preferred katana.

 _He had Marisa's video, right?_

Arianna approached the motive video that was on the table. She pressed the play button five times.

.

The video seemed to be in a darkly lit room. Marisa's face was barely visible.  
"You know why you are here, right?" She spoke softly. She had pen and paper had her disposal. She looked ready to write what the person said.

"We all know why I'm here." The person speaking sounded delusional. He let out a low laugh. "But do we really know why _you_ are here?" He added.

She sent a glare towards him. "That wasn't the question."

"Yeah, but it was mine." He smirked. "Do you come do these things so that when you finally snap, you can create the perfect crimes? Is that why you do this?"

Marisa was already seeming to get less and less patient every time the culprit opened their mouth.

"Sir, we don't have time for this." She said, still trying to be calm.

"Oh? But we have all the time in the world, don't we." He grinned as the video cut off.

.

 _Well that was disturbing. Was the prisoner trying to play mind games on Marisa?_

She wasn't going to trouble herself on it too much. So she left her room. The next room she headed to was Xi. And well, it was a messed up room. Ignoring that, she quickly grabbed the motive video and pressed play five times.

.

The video showed the scene of a forest. How did Monokuma even get footage of this, didn't even start to make sense. But that was a question for a different time. At the entrance of the forest, Tristan stood there, looking on towards some machines that came to cut down the forest.

"You can't do this…" Tristan said weakly, not expecting to have to actually go up against the machines. They were the new models too, made in the year 2034 from the looks of it. The machines didn't stop however. Tristan started to back up and ended up tripping on a branch. He grabbed a rock and threw it at one of the machines. It smashed through the window and actually hit the person controlling the machine. This somehow made the person veer the machine to the left into another machine. Things got bloody real quickly. Then the video ended.

.

…

She promptly left the room. Not going to deal with what she saw. Next up was Eliza. She entered the room, which was actually quite adorable. She walked over to the Monopad on the table.

 _I haven't seen who's video she has yet. But my process of elimination, it can only be Larissa._

She pressed play.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Eliza Dalton. If it isn't! Keep watching anyway!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Larissa Banks! What is with her? All she does is put couples together. But who can do that perfectly so many times? Not even she can. I found that some of the couples she put together ended up committing suicide. Man, so much for a happy ending. But do you think Larissa knew that was going to happen? Who knows? Monokuma, out!" And the video ended.

.

 _Alright, that would have just been a coincidence._

She pressed the play button fives times to activate the next video.

.

"Larissa Banks, is it? Ultimate Matchmaker?" A man asked her.

"Y-yes." She mumbled, she, of course, didn't want to be here.

The man took out some papers. "You seem to be very good at what you do. Except for the fact that you seem to have coupled up several people, who seem to have vanished, only to show up a couple days later, apparently having committed suicide together. Or one murders the other. Happened with Stephanie and Robert. Nikolas and Betty. And so many more. You seem to have been responsible for pairing them up."

"I had nothing to do with that!" She cried out. "I paired them up because I saw a happy future from them. I can't predict if they die or not."

"Well, still, one time would be a coincidence, several, are not so accidental. But of course, I can't put any charges without full concrete evidence." He got up, and walked away. The video then cut off.

.

 _Hmm… this doesn't make too much sense. Why does Monokuma want us to see these videos. Is he trying to get a point across? There doesn't seem to be anything else here of interest._

She walked out of Eliza's room. She looked at the rooms remaining.

 _I don't know why I haven't done this yet, but…_

She walked into her own room and grabbed her motive video.

 _This one is about Delilah. God, it called her such a fucking liar. I should have realized it before!_

She pressed the play button five times rapidly. Soon, a video started to play.

.

"So, you managed to pilot the plane to safety, correct?" A woman asked a younger Delilah.

She had the innocence in her eyes that she shows from time to time, so it was hard to get a read on her. "Duh! I already said that! I attacked the bad guy on the plane and took control of it! The co pilot tried to stop me! But I saved the plan, sorta." She giggled at the end.

"And do you know what happened to the bad guy?" The woman asked.

She let out a shrug. "I don't know. Probably went to jail and was shanked. Who cares!" She let out a laugh. So apparently she had a similar mindset then.

"He was found dead long before he even reached prison. After the plane had an emergency landing, he was found dead several blocks away. Stabbed with a knife. He strangely had some fabrics of your clothing on him. Care to explain."

"Wow! Who knew my clothes were so popular already." She kept playing the innocent card. "Anyone could be wearing similar fabrics to me!" She crossed her arms. She glanced at the time before running out abruptly.

.

 _As fucking insane as always. Well, I should actually go explore her room. As the traitor, she should have many things in there._

She left her own room and went for Delilah's. However…

"What do you think you are doing?" Delilah asked, walking out of her own room."

Arianna stopped walking and eyes her. "I'm trying to investigate!"

"Ooooh! Well, don't investigate my room. It would be baaaad!" She giggled. She reached into her room and grabbed some thing. She closed her door and locked it. Before doing something with the lock. "There we go! Now no one can get into it. Not even myself!" She had completely sealed off the keyhole.

"W-what was the purpose of that?" Arianna yelled at her.

She gave a smug shrug. "Who knows?" With that, she skipped away, clutching something in her hands. However, Arianna didn't know what she was carrying.

 _Dammit, why is she doing this now!_

No time to dawdle, Arianna went over to Chase's room next. His room was, actually normal. But she feared what would be shown if she had a dark light. ANYWAYS, she walked over to his video.

 _This one was about David, was it not…_

She pressed the play button fives times.

.

It showed a political figure standing on stage, talking, but the audio was inaudible. It was also pretty shaky. It was hard to figure out what the video was about. However, the person recording almost tripped and the camera ducked down, hiding the politician from few. When the camera focused back on the man, he fell down dead. Something unknown killing him. Then, the video cut off.

.

 _So someone was killed, is this, blaming David? Well I don't see what else it could be doing…_

She put it down it down and left his room. Next one was David's room.

 _I think he had Jenna? I don't know, it's been a while._

he grabbed the video and pressed play five times.

.

The video seemed to be happening in a laboratory. Jenna, was clearly visible.

"I'm telling you abysmal excuse for humans, I had no relation to what had occured that night. Nor do I make things for people I don't know personally. My eccentric research is none of your concern." Jenna crossed her arms.

"Yes, but our sources have notified us that it could only have come from your la-" The man said.

She sent glares at them. "I frequently check my stock for any items, and none of them are unaccounted for. So, if you have nothing else to say to me, the door is that way, and you should promptly take it!" Then the video ended.

.

 _Alright… I don't really care about that…_

She put down the video and headed out.

 _Only two rooms left, and one of them is locked._

She walked into Tristan's room, grabbed his video, and pressed play five times.

.

The video started off like it was being recorded by a camera. The location, the hallway. Suddenly, multiple people were visible. Inlu- wait, everyone who had been in this killing game were there.

"Alright" Gabriel said, leaning against the wall. "They have the place surrounded, so the only way out is to fight them."

"I-I don't really think this is the best option." Eliza said.

Gabriel frowned a little bit. "Well we don't have any options anymore, I don't know why they are after us, but we won't go down without a fight."

Chase let out a sigh, he was equipped with a pistol. It looked like he didn't want to do anything either.

Delilah pouted a little bit. "There wasn't any chainsaws or machine guns!"

"Delilah, what the fuck." Arti said, beside him, Larissa stood holding a sword that she was being trained with.

"I'm sure we can just hang in David." Chase said.

David shook his head. "Hey asshole, they don't just want me!" His hand went into his cloak, removing some knives.

"Can we just not do this?" Tristan asked. "I don't think we should be violent."

Gabriel looked down at him, shaking his head. "I don't want it to be like this, but it's kill or be killed, and right now, the school is hunting us down!"

"Jesus christ." Catrina shook her head. "If we don't do something about them now, we won't be able to. So can we just go on?"

"Yeah, but, is there anything we can really do about them?" Tristan asked.

Marisa looked around the corner to see if anyone is there. "We are just going to have to try."

Gabriel looked at everyone. "This is the time to fight."

Nonam looked around at everyone. "They have entered the school. It's not as concentrated to the West, but that is obviously a trap. They know I am helping you all out. So to them, I am a traitor, and they plan to use the equipment I have against me."

Arianna was standing beside Nonam. "Well we don't really need your gadgets. We have you."

Nonam looked over at her and smiled softly.

And then the video ended with Gabriel firing something off.

.

 _What. The. Fuck. Was. That. I don't have any memories of that! So this needs to be after our memories cut off. And it seems to be happening at school. But, what were we fighting against?_

 _Dammit! This could have been what Tristan meant when he said Gabriel was leading them down a path of evil. But, is that really the case? It seems like we are just trying to defend ourselves. But why is the school after us?_

She shook her head and placed the video down.

 _No time to think about it._

She walked out of the room and was about to leave when someone called to her.

"I think you are missing a room." Xi said, leaning against the wall.

Arianna turned towards him, almost startled. "Well Delilah blocked off her door, and Marisa's is locked.

Xi shook his head, walking over to Marisa's door. He played around with the lock a bit, before a distinct, _click_ could be heard. "There, it's unlocked." He started to walk away.

"Wait, aren't you going to explore the room?" Arianna asked.

He stopped walking and looked over at her. "I have other business to attend to." He turned the corner and was gone from view.

Arianna sighed and walked into Marisa's room. What she didn't expect was some of the things found inside her room. For one, her room was a dark red colour, normally associated with murder mysteries. But the other thing that was weird was the fact that some stuff involved in the other cases were there. Like the broken light from the second case, multiple of David's knives. But, what really caught her attention was something on the desk. It was…

 _A laptop?_

Arianna rushed over to it and opened it, turning it on. After a few seconds, several files started loading up. "How did she get this?" She opened up a few files but they were mostly just about the events that happened, although one article did catch her attention.

.

 _Based on observations I've made, I've noticed several things since I've been here. From times I've visited Hope's Peak Academy before my memory cuts off, this does not match up to what it should be. The rooms seem to have changed locations, ever so slightly, however. So it's either bad memory, or, something is up with this school. Other observation show that there's a lap in when the cameras don't work. However, you barely have time to actually do anything. I only have five minutes to write. I'm pretty sure no one else is aware of this fact yet. But I can't say that I know about it. But it's for sure that Monokuma can only see through the cameras. The only problem is, that they aren't fully visible. However, were someone to have way more time, more could be accomplished. But that's very unlikely to occur. Furthermore, I'm sure it's safe to assume that someone who has participated in the killing game is also the one running it. But I need more info for that, as I've come up to nothing so far. I'm pretty limited with what I can research. To be honest, I found the laptop in my drawer one day. So I didn't bring it. And it already had info on it. Including the fact that there isn't just-_

.

The computer shut down, apparently from battery lost. "Wait! What!" Arianna shouted. She started rummaging through the drawers for a potential charger, but there wasn't one anywhere. Slowly, the laptop sank into the desk, disappearing from view.

 _What? What the hell is this bullshit?_

Suddenly.

Bear!

"What are you doing in this room?" Monokuma asked, standing behind her.

She almost jumped but held herself. "Trying to investigate!"

He looked around. "Well I only came here to see what the hell was going on! Since it's so late in the game, I should probably say this, but this room goes off the radar everyday at random for five minutes! Sometimes even several times. It's probably just a glitch of sorts. Oh well!" And with that, Monokuma was gone.

Arianna shook her head at the bear's antics. Now, it was time for the final motive video. Marisa claimed to have received Xi's, but he wasn't really hiding anything. She pressed the play button.

.

The screen lit up and played a little video "Welcome everyone, to your first motive! This Monopad should be directed to Marisa Campbell. If it isn't! Keep watching anyway!" Monokuma laughed. "Today's subject is going to be Xi Loung! What is with him? Apparently he is a world renowned psychologist. But apparently the only person he can't treat, is himsel- wait, you already know that because he admitted it! He started to curse under his breath, only being cut off by the video ending.

.

"Just as I thought, nothing new. But…" She pressed the play button five times for the last video.

.

It was in an office building. "Look, I already told you, I don't turn people insane." Xi smirked.

"Well you seem to have a tendency of finding people who are insane…" The man said.

Xi let out a chuckle. "It's what I do, I didn't know I could get punished for doing a good job."

The person talking to him was already growing thin with patience. "This is not what it's about! It seems we are having an influx of people with high mental illness. Yes you are a psychologist, but you are also mentally unstable, so we can't leave you with any patients."

"Oh? But denying me to right to work wouldn't be good. You shouldn't do that to someone with mental problems." He let out a few more laughs. "Who knows what might happen?" And with that dreary threat, the video ended.

.

 _That told me basically nothing we didn't already know about Xi. Great._

She put the monopad down and left the room. "That's every room but Delilah's. Although it's not like I need to see the video she had. We've seen them both." She started walking down the hallway, soon, arriving to the broken library. She thought for a few moments before entering the room. It was different from the last time she remembered. For one, almost every book was on the ground. There were only three books that were in their shelves. Arianna moved around the library to reach them. She looked at all three of them before deciding on one of them.

.

 _Suicidal Mysteries_

.

 _Recently, several couples had been found dead in their home for unknown reasons, upon further investigation from the authorities, they ruled out the scenarios as a suicide. However, when I went to the scene myself, a lot of things didn't add up. Most of the clues there pointed towards a third party being involved and killing the couple. This proved true for the next few couples that had killed themselves. Further investigation proved that someone else had indeed killed them and made it appear as a double suicide, or that one murdered the other. Video footage found in one house did paint the story pretty clearly._

.

 _~M.C._

.

The rest of it seemed to be burned off, so this seemed to be all she could read. What was this about? It didn't help her find out the mystery of the school. Onto the next one.

.

 _False Corruption_

.

 _Several reports of corruption going on in a sector of politics have recently come to light to me. So of course, I did my own digging. Apparently the party being accused of corruption is supposingly being framed. Some outside force is being paid to sabotage this party. The leader of the party, Jackson, and his son, received most of the accusations. However, they refuse to back out, which seems like the right choice._

.

 _~M.C._

.

She silently put back that article.

 _Well that doesn't help either!_

She picked up the last article visible and flipped through it.

.

 _School Tragedy._

.

 _A young ninth grader was found dead in her home, this Saturday. Not much information was allowed to be released to the public, however, I don't care and here's what I found out happened. She had been subject to intense bullying from the start of ninth grade. Her best friend always coming to her aid. However, said best friend eventually had to leave to go somewhere. This struck the bullies as the perfect opportunity to strike. One session of bullying got out of hand, and the girl ended up dying. They don't seem to want that truth to slip up. The best friend just so happen to return around the same time the victim died._

.

 _~M.C._

.

She put that article away.

 _This doesn't link to anything either! At least, not at first glance…_

She looked around some more and sighed. "Going through every single book here would take forever. There must be a reason why only those three were there. So I shouldn't bother with the rest." She walked out of the library and headed down the hall. She passed by a few lockers and sighed.

 _I remember Delilah saying something about planting something in the lockers…_

She started searching various lockers. Soon, coming across a bomb like device, however the locker in question was kinda off the beaten path.

 _This was the thing that she placed and that Christopher found. He probably found it because of his luck, but that turned out poorly for him._

She started tempering around with it. "So it doesn't actually appear to be a live bomb, just a fake…" She played around with the timer and started it. "Nor does it make any sound when it starts up… Hmm…" She stopped the timer and placed it back into the locker. "Where to next?" She continued walking, the next room she reached was the lab. "..." She looked at into with a frown, before stepping in. All of the stuff that could be used to make things, were gone. "Why is everything even missing?" The only thing left was a sheet of information. She read through it but didn't find any of the information to be interesting.

.

 **Please note that the information she is reading comes from** **human/deadliest-poisons-man**

.

She placed the article down. "I feel like I've heard of one of these before…"

At that moment, Eliza walked in, almost scarring herself upon seeing Arianna. "Ahh!"

Arianna turned towards her. "What are you doing here?"

"J-just getting some glue!" She rummaged through something in the corner and pulled out a small vial of what appeared to be glue. "J-Jenna apparently had some left over…" She mumbled to herself. She looked over at Arianna and quickly rushed out.

 _What was that all about? Eh, it's Eliza. It's probably nothing bad. She might need it for something._

Arianna walked out of the lab, having found nothing else that seems important. Next stop was the cafeteria. Inside, there actually wasn't anything of use, so she made her way straight to the kitchen. Inside, was strangely another article. This one, without a title.

.

 _Chemical mixup._

.

 _Reports of chemical have been filed everywhere around the city. This has caused the death of several people. So of course, I looked into this myself. Apparently whoever did this, acquired the mixture from a research facility. If the culprit stole it, or got permission to use it is still unknown, but it points to the former as the culprit so bluntly left the mixture's name and creator at the scene of the crime._

.

 _~M.C._

.

She threw this article behind her. "This one is also useless. It doesn't tell us about our current situation!" She walked out of the kitchen and cafeteria, bumping into Chase, who seemed to be holding something. "Ouch, watch where you are goi-" She looked at what he was holding. "What are you doing with one of Arti's swords?"

"Look, I don't know. Xi asked me to get it all of a sudden." He shrugged, seemingly not sure either.

 _Weird, Xi was here earlier, so why didn't he get it himself. Unless he didn't need it at the time, but…_

Chase looked around. "Well, I gotta go…" He walked away rather quickly, clutching the sheath instead of wearing it like a normal fucking person.

 _Last place on this floor is the gym…_

She made her way to the last location that was available on this floor. Once inside the gym, she looked around. There didn't seem to be anything important. Just awards given to people.

.

 _For S.D., for her perfect aim._

.

 _For V.T., for always helping out with the shows._

.

 _For C.R., for helping bring other people's music to life._

.

 _For J.O., for always hosting every event that happens._

.

Arianna looked at them all. Half her mind was telling her that this was useless, the other half was telling her to mark this down. Not finding anything else, she left the gym. Now it was time to head to the second floor.

.

.

.

She arrived to the second floor. There should have been a library here, but that was lone gone to the first floor. Arianna thought of all the rooms that were on the floor and came to the conclusion that, the Computer Lab, would be the only room worth checking. She made her way there and opened the door.

All the computers seemed to be off, however one, seemed to be on, and displaying an article. She walked over it to examine it.

.

 _Instability._

.

 _Over the years, the population of unstable people have risen in the area. But contrary to what people believe, it isn't just rising completely. Yes, more people are unstable now, but those are people who seem to have moved in, while the people who were unstable before have seem to restabilize. So the people coming to this area are coming here to seek help._

.

 _~M.C._

.

She shook her head at this article. "This definitely sounds familiar… but what?" She looked around the room, she was still alone. She closed the computer screen out of habit and left the room.

.

.

.

She was now on the third floor, already, weird. Her first order of business was to head over to the movie theatre, because of course it was. She entered the theatre, looking around. She had expected there to be more things, however, there was just one movie placed on a table. From the times she had visited this place, there had been much more. But now, there was only one. She looked at the movie cover, however, the only thing she could read was the year it was made. Which was 2034.

Sighing, she walked over to a room, placing the DVD player. Once she was done, she headed back to the main room.

The movie started shortly after…

.

.

.

 _Actors presents in this film:_

.

 _Arthur Black_

 _Brian Clyde_

 _Erwin Mani  
Rebecca Mariel_

 _Whitney Russels_

.

Then the agonizing movie played, which Arianna almost fell asleep during. It got so bad Arianna just got up and left the theatre. The next stop was the arcade. She walked in and looked at the various machines. She also found a wandering Eliza. "Hey, Eliza, what are you doing here?"

She almost screamed out of shock. "A-Arianna! D-don't sneak up on me!"

"I didn't sneak up on you, I announced my presence." She shook her head.

Eliza looked around nervously. "S-still! I was just looking around the place, and I found a news article. Someone was mentioned it in." She handed Arianna the news paper. She looked at it and read it.

.

 _Thief in the Light_

.

 _Earlier this month, famed matchmaker Larissa Banks had been robbed on the street. She tried to pursue the crook but couldn't keep up. However, the crook was found in an alleyway not far off, severely bloody. Apparently someone had attacked him, now, I won't disclose that information for reasons alone to me. But the crook was captured._

.

 _~M.C._

.

She put the article down on an arcade machine.

 _So Larissa was mentioned in this, but this doesn't sound like what she was being accused of. So why is she mentioned in this article._

Arianna looked around to see if Eliza was there anymore, but she had left. "Huh…? Eliza?" But still, no answer. "Where did she go?" She let out a sigh and walked out of the arcade room. "Well, next on my list is the training room. She went over to it and tried to open it.

 _Clack clack!_

"What? It's locked?" She tried to open it again.

 _Clack clack!_

"Dammit…" She mumbled.

"Yeah, it's been locked for a bit." Xi said, leaning against a wall. He wasn't there when Arianna first passed by the wall.

"Could you lockpick it?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"I mean, I could, but that would ruin the fun, wouldn't it?" He let out a smirk.

She crossed her arms. "Why won't you just unlock it like you did last time?"

He let out a shrug. "Perhaps someone doesn't want to be disturbed." He let off a smirk.

She frowned at him, but couldn't do anything else. The last room on this floor, was the woodshop. Yeah, that was not a room she wanted to go in, but there wasn't much choice. She opened the door, and as she expected, it was like it was before the murder had occurred.

Inside the room, were the things that were there before, however, there was also a little article. However it didn't seem to be written by the people who wrote the other ones. She approached it and started to read it.

.

 _2034 model._

.

 _The 2034 model had a fine addition added into it's system. It auto locks the steering wheel so they cannot turn abruptly. As they are not meant to do that. They are meant to head straight. However, if someone were to disable that function, then it would be able to turn. However, there is no reason to ever turn that function off normally._

.

She read over the article a few more times, frowning. "Well, I guess this could help me with something. But I'm not sure what…" She let out a notable sigh and left the room. "That's it for the third floor, I guess it's time for the fourth floor." She headed for the stairs, she started climbing up them when she bumped into someone.

It was Chase. "Oh! Sorry about that." He said.

Arianna looked at him, he didn't appear to be holding the katana from earlier, nor did Xi have it. "It's OK." She started to walk up the stairs again.

"Hey, can you meet me in the training room in about thirty minutes?" He asked so suddenly.

 _What?_ "Well, huh… the doors locked." She told him.

He shook his head. "It shouldn't be locked then. He sent her a smile. "Remember, thirty minutes! Don't be late." He headed down the stairs.

Arianna watched him leave. _Why was he acting so suspicious. Wait, why was Eliza and Xi act- well, I get Xi. But also Eliza? What is going on? And where did Delilah go after leaving her room. Nothing is adding up…_

She soon made it to the fourth floor.

.

.

.

Once there, she surveyed the area. This is the floor that hosted that play they did. Well, now's not the time to reminisce. The first room she went to was the Salon. Inside, there wasn't much. However, like the other rooms, there was a news article.

 _Who was continuously putting these there? Whatever!_

She grabbed it and started to read it.

.

 _Hijack Hi-jinks_

.

 _After a recent hijacking, the culprit was found dead several blocks away. People at the area around the time of death say that they did not see anything. However, the body itself was marked with a brand. That brand likely links him to a group. It did not match up with the standard location that the mark was always branded on the stomach. This one was branded on the back. Which means this much be a different reason. Further investigation shows he could have failed a mission, and was killed for it._

.

 _~M.C._

.

"Hmm…" Arianna started to think. "These are all starting to sound familiar now…" She put down the article and went through the side door, since it linked directly to the Costume Room. In it, she found, once again, another article. She picked it up and started to read it.

.

 _Under false fire._

.

 _After several charges were sent out by her, Maxine Parkinson has finally been arrested for sending out false charges. While I'm not going to say what charges she filed, as, they are numerous. Just know that almost every single one of them were false charges and landed several people in trouble. She thought because she was rich, that she could get away with it._

.

 _~M.C._

.

Arianna put that article down and looked around. "I think I'm starting to understand what's actually going on here…" She let out a sigh, before going into the second side door, which lead to the Theatre Room. Same deal as almost every other room, an article lay in view. She picked up this one and started to read it.

.

 _A Shot in the Day._

.

 _Last Friday, a politician was shot dead during a speech. The culprit who did it still remains unknown. The politician was shot from approximately 100m away from the culprit. So a long ranged weapon was most likely used for this assault. Soon, a sniper rifle was found abandoned around the area the shot originated from_

.

 _~M.C._

.

She put that article down. "I hope that's the last one of those I need to read." She let out a sigh. She headed out of the room and looked around. The final room was, the art room. Just looking at it brought back pain. She sighed and stepped into the room. She noticed Delilah crouched down in front of a wall. "Huh, Delilah?"

This almost caused her to throw something at Arianna. "Oh hi Arianna!" She giggled, walking over to her. "How has your search been?" She tilted her head.

Arianna, arms crossed, was having none of this. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to see if the dead bodies were still here." She smiled, but then it turned into a frown. "But they weren't"

"That, is very…" She couldn't find the right words. "Can you leave?"

Arianna walked up beside her. "Well I already searched the room, and I didn't find anything." She leaned in to whisper to the last part. "Good luuuuck." She started to skip away, turning towards Arianna once she reached the door. "Well, I'm off. I have somewhere I need to be!" She swiftly left the room.

 _Nothing in here? Fuck that!_

She proceeded to find nothing.

 _Shit._

She left that room and headed for the stairs. While climbing them, however, the building lost power completely, for a good minute. "What the hell was that?" She looked around. "Hmm…" She would need to go check that out soon, once she was done with the fifth floor. It was vastly different from even the investigation yesterday. It now actually seemed like an actual floor. The first room she made her way towards was the one where the murder happened. The day she lost two more friends…

She shook those thoughts from her head and headed down the hallway. Soon, she arrived at the intended room. However, upon entering.

The room was still almost the same. Despite the body now missing, most of the blood still remained. And, actually, only three of the spears remained in the room. So someone had definitely taken the rest of them.

"I guess it makes sense, a lot of the stuff at the crime scenes ended up in Marisa's room. So she wasn't here to pick them up. Besides from that, there wasn't anything of note. She was going to head back down when something caught her eye. It was an office room of sorts. Inside, were several computers. However, all of them were off. Except for one, this one, of course, was important. She walked over to it, sitting on a chair in front of it.

.

 _So, I don't know what this school is planning to do with the students of the 75th class. But from what I've gathered, it isn't good. I don't know why they have gathered these students either. There is a much bigger picture here, however, I have heard of the rumours going around. Someone is targeting these students. The reports, which were published by her, turned out to be true when I did my own digging. But the school seems very against it at the moment. I put my full trust in her, and I'm even going to help her with her work. I just need to not get caught._

.

 _~J.T._

.

"Well this is different from all the other new articles I've seen." She looked over at the name signed. "J.T.? Who is that." She had a good idea who M.C. was, so she didn't put much thought into it. "This seems to be all that's here…" She looked around the room one more time. A clock caught her eyes.

 _I should hurry up and go down, I'm already ten minutes late to that meeting. I hope Chase can wait._

She started to rush out of the room and head towards the stairs. But of course, she passed by another room that seemed interesting. She peeked in. "An infirmary?" She walked in, completely forgetting that she was supposed to do something else.

Inside the infirmary, there wasn't much of anything. The interesting thing, was in the next room. Arianna walked into the second room after finding nothing of interest. In the next room, was a very cold room. If anything, it looked like an area that stores dead bodies. In total, it looked like ten bodies were being stored. "Only ten?" Arianna mumbled. However, remembering Tristan's execution, it seemed like his body was probably unrecoverable. She walked over to one of the things, trying to open it to see if they actually contained a body. It didn't open, unfortunately, and fortunately. "Dammit, I can't even confirm if it's them." She said that, but she also glad it didn't open. Having to see those bodies again would be the worst kind of pain. "Well, there doesn't seem to be any articles here." She looked around, five more minutes wasted, apparently.

 _Shit, I really need to go see Chase now._

She rushed out of the room and headed for the stairs. It took about five minutes to go down to the third floor because some idiot decided to make long stairs. She walked over to the Training Room and froze before going to turn the handle.

 _It should still be locked, right?_

She grabbed the handle, it turned.

 _It's not locked?_

She slowly turned the handle and opened the door. "Hey, Chase, are you still here?"

… _?_

 _The killing game is over._

Those thoughts swirled around in her head as she entered the room.

 _The killing game is over._

She looked in front of her.

 _Then, why, why?_

.

On a ceiling, a nearly shattered disco ball spins around, hauntingly. On the ground, there was shattered glass, and further away, an intact vial of something. Near the wall, a small pool of blood has formed. Next to that pool of blood, about a third of a hand was there. Around that cut off bit of hand, was a bloodied saw, like it had been running. The fingers on the hand were also cut off. The victim was tied by the legs, hanging upside down. Pinning them to the wall, were several spears. A lot of blood was formed around the area the spears were stabbed in. As well as some dried up blood. The victim had their eyes closed, but they seemed to have been in huge pain. The victim was none other than the Ultimate Pilot, Delilah Lyi.


	13. Chapter 6: Stand Separated - Part 2

_What. The. Fuck!_

Arianna starred, frozen, as another one of the people she knew, was now dead.

 _What the hell is this? I know she was a bitch! But, I didn't want her to die!_

At that moment, Monokuma walked into the room. "Hey, Delilah, are yo-" He now also saw the body. "I'll come back another time."

Arianna turned angrily towards Monokuma. "Monokuma! What the hell! I thought you said no more killing!"

He looked over at Delilah's body and started to think. "I did say that, and they go off and kill my traitor. And after she worked so hard. Well since they enjoy killing that much! There will be a sixth trial before the final trial!" He exclaimed.

"What?" Her eyes went wide. "That's not fair!"

Monokuma laughed a little. "Life isn't fair!" He pressed a button out of nowhere. "Normally I'd wait till three people discovered the body, but."

.

 _Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!_

.

"A body has been discovered!" Monokuma started. "Please meet me in the training room. Someone, couldn't resist themselves from killing!" He sounded pretty angry.

.

He let out a sigh and turned towards Arianna. "What were you doing anyways?"

"Are you accusing me? You should know very well who did it." Arianna crossed her arms.

He seemed really offended by that last part. "O-of course I do! I meant what were you doing upstairs?"

Arianna shook her head at the bears antics. "I was doing what I was supposed to! Look for information."

 _Why is he acting this way, is there something, he's not telling us?_

Monokuma went over to a stool and took a seat. "Now we wait for the others to arrive!" He called out.

 _Oh yes, the others. How could one of them do this… And why would they ever do it?_

Soon, everyone left gathered in the room. It was one of the most saddest sights in the world. Besides Arianna, there were only three people left. And one of them had committed the crime. One of them did it, and it wasn't going to be hard to find.

"What do you mean another bo-" Eliza said as she entered the room, her face turning pale. "What?" She seemed to now be wearing a bracelet. Weird

Chase was the next one to walk in. Although his expression was somewhat mad. He was now wearing a watch.

The last one to arrive was of course Xi. He looked up and down at Delilah and sighed. "Well, I wasn't expecting another death any time soon. Especially while we were trying to solve our way out. Who ever orchestrated must be out of their minds…"

Monokuma looked around angrily at everyone. "I hope you guys are happy with yourselves! Because of that, there will be a sixth trial, so soon, another one of you will die!" He shouted at them all.

 _Why is he so mad, I get that the traitor died, but he could have easily stopped it, it's his fault for not intervening._

"Well no matter, since I'm pissy, you will start the investigation right now!" Monokuma pulled out a pad and started typing stuff into it, like it wasn't ready beforehand. He handed it over to Arianna. "It's the Monokuma File!"

Arianna looked at it.

 _Well, this should help clarify some stuff. The time of death would be a big help._

She turned it on.

.

 **Monokuma File #7**

.

 **The victim is Delilah Lyi. She was found dead in the Training Room. Her body was upside down, tied to the wall by her legs. Several spears were stabbed into her. She received under injuries like part of her hand missing. Time of death is in between 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM. Cause of death is unknown.**

.

 _What? Why is the time of death written like that? And what's with the cause of death being unknown?_

She looked at the spears.

 _Unless it's not the spears._

She sent a glance towards everyone.

 _Dammit, I think I'm going to need to do this investigation on my own. I can't trust anyone. Chase doesn't seem bothered by it. Not to mention he wanted to meet me here thirty minutes ago. Xi doesn't seem too bothered by it either. The only one who seems disturbed by it is Eliza. But she was acting strange before the murder happened._

"Well, I guess we have to do this one last time." Chase let out a sigh. "Not like I really cared who killed her. She was responsible for a lot of our pain."

Xi smirked. "Agreed, however, I don't want to die. Monokuma, before you go, may I ask you a question?"

He turned angrily towards Xi. "What do you want?"

"What if, whoever is orchestrating this, killed her?" He smirked. "So she would remain quiet?"

Monokuma laughed a little. "What do I have to gain from killing her off? Nothing! That's what! Now is that it for questions?" There was a long silence. "Good!" He then vanished.

Arianna looked around the room again.

 _Great, well, I might as well start._

She was first going to investigate the body, when something else caught her attention on the floor. She kneeled down to get a better look. Shattered glass lay on the floor, and in a tiny pool, a magenta liquid was faintly visible.

 _What could this be? There doesn't seem to be any markings on the pieces of glass._

She looked a little further away and noticed a vial of something .However, the contents were empty. Although there was a thin white layer surrounding the inside of it.

 _Not to mention this, I could have sworn I've seen this somewhere before._

She moved herself closer to the body. She got to the hand bit and the bloodied saw. It appeared to be part of the left hand that was cut off, and the saw is the only thing around at the moment that could have possibly do it. Not to mention that it was currently bloody, but. Even the fingers appeared to be cut off by the saw. It seemed weird however, what was the point of cutting the victims hand like that? And why was there less blood around the area then there should have been.

She looked up at the body after spending some time with the cut off hand.

 _Well, onto the actual body._

She approached Delilah and examined stuff. Yeah, the missing part of the hand did come from the left hand. But that was beside the point. She had several spears stabbed into her at various parts of the body. Strangely, they all seemed to be stabbed into parts where she was wearing clothes. As such, her arms and most of her legs were left untouched. Not just that, but her clothes were seemingly covered with blood, however, the blood did not leak. Not just that, but most of the blood was dried, except for the one on her clothes. Weird. Next, her arms and legs were tied up. Kinda excessive. But if they were going for what she thinks they were going for. They definitely nailed it. As well as nailing Delilah to the wall apparently.

 _But still, why go this far? Were they really angry at Delilah to have them suffer as much as everyone else did?_

Delilah faced was pained, but besides that. It didn't seem like she had suffered to much. The first spear was probably what killed her. At least that's what Arianna concluded. From what she could tell, that was all that was really important with the body.

She turned to look at everyone else. "So, one of us did this.?" She asked, very angrily.

Chase crossed his arms, looking away. "Yeah."

She looked at all three of them. What had they done while she was on the fifth floor.

 _Fifth floor?_

She then remember when the power went out when she had reached the fifth floor. What was that all about? Was it important to this case? It had to be, that was around the time she should have met up with Chase in this room. A lot of things brought up questions, but little answers were gathered from the info she had. Out of rage, she kicked a nearby trash can, and out spilled what looked like several red spikes. "What the?" She was going to investigate even more when Eliza called out.

"Look!" She picked something up, although she had a hard time to carry it.

It was Arti's katana, which Chase should have had to bring.

"Hmm…" She started to think to herself. Things were not looking good for Chase right now. But why was the Katana even here? It doesn't look bloody, so it wasn't used on the victim. So what was it used it for?

Eliza placed it against the wall, right under Delilah.

Arianna was going to look back at all the spikes again, when.

"Hey, maybe we should go check Delilah's room?" Chase suggested.

"We can't, she did something to lock." Arianna looked the other.

Chase shook his head. "We don't even need the handle." He smirked.

Arianna didn't want to deal with his shit right now, but, might as well humour him.

Xi and Eliza wanted to stay in the room, and decided to stay.

Before she left, she glanced up at the ceiling, the disco ball was still spinning.

 _They even went as far as to get a disco ball? How mad were they to do that?_

She started to follow Chase. "Hey, what happened to our meeting?"

Chase looked over his shoulder and shook his head. "You never showed up, so I left."

"And the katana?"

"I gave it to Xi and he decided to let me in the room, I didn't know why he wanted it, though." He said. He didn't seem to be lying, at least, not enough to be detected.

Arianna looked the around. "How long did you wait?"

He started to think back. "I gave you about ten minutes before I left, I had to do some investigation myself, so I couldn't let you hold me up." He looked over at her. "What were you doing?"

"I was exploring the fifth floor and lost track of time." She admitted.

After walking for a bit they reached the first floor.

"Well, I'm not sure if both our accounts can be believable." Chase said. "That leaves a twenty minutes window when the killer could have done what they wanted."

Soon, they arrived at the door.

"So what's your bright idea?" Arianna crossed her arms.

He let out a smirk. "Hey, let's just say I was aiming for another Ultimate Title before I was given Ultimate Flirt." He took a few steps back, and fucking kicked that door in, choosing to aim above the door handle. And, it actually worked, the door almost came flying off it's hinges.

Arianna watched this whole thing go down. "What were you aiming for as a talent?"

He let out a shrug. "Just a cop."

"Alright." She shook her head walking into the Delilah's room.

It was, surprisingly normal compared to some of the rooms she has seen here. But it was strange given Delilah's crazy personality, and the fact she was the traitor.

 _I expected there to be more._

"Eh." Chase shrugged, looking around the room.

Arianna walked further into the room, eventually hitting something with her foot. She looked down and saw a bottle. She kneeled down and picked it up.

 _RJ Poison? What is that? I've never heard of that._ _Was she poisoned? But if so, why is this in her room, unless someone broke into her room to do so._

"Well there's this thing that says poison. But it's empty, which makes me think someone used it." She said out loud.

"R&J? I feel like I've heard that before…" Chase mumbled.

"It's RJ" Arianna mumbled to him.

Chase took the bottle. "Are you sure?" He looked it over. "Looks like R&J to me."

"Chase, shut up." Arianna mumbled.

"If you say so."

 _Now, what else can I find, I'm not just normally looking, I'm looking for some other stuff to. Some things only the traitor would have._

She started searching around the room. Searching in the desk drawer, she found exactly what she was looking for. "Bingo"

It was a Hope's Peak document of sort.

"Found anything of interest?" Chase asked, peering over her shoulder.

She slowly nodded. Of course she couldn't just let this info go unread. So she opened the book. It appeared to be organised by alphabetical order from first name. So, of course her name was the first on the list, "Great." She mumbled to herself. That, of course didn't stop her from reading it anyways.

.

 _Arianna tended to stick with the crowd of people. She made friends quickly, as she was pretty famous before she went to school. She even made a few friends among the reserve course. However, she never seem to like them as much as she did the Ultimates. Although she moved around who she mostly hung around with. She actually stayed consistently around one person._

.

Chase smirked. "I wonder who that one person was."

She simply shook her head and went on to the next person.

.

 _Arti was more of an outsider. An outcast, if you will. He rather spend all his time alone than with everyone else. Although he kept getting pestered by a blonde girl throughout his time at the academy. Seemingly he caved in and let her hang out with him. He even trained her to use a sword._

.

"That holds up with what Larissa said." Arianna noted.

Chase nodded. "It seems to."

.

 _Catrina never really spent much time at school. She was sent overseas several time during her school life. She had many rich people invite her to host the music part of their party. And she was never one to turn down an offer. But this didn't affect her likelihood to graduate, as attending class wasn't mandatory. She was a little random at times, taking in any suggestions for music, without actually listening to it first, saying she could make any music, good music. Not only this, but she learned to be very adept at fighting, since the clubs she went to were often attacked. She has even managed to take out an armed person._

.

Arianna started storming through the other files in the document.

.

 _Chase was always seen around a large crowd of girls he had successfully flirted with. They belonged to the Reserve Course, thus, he thought it be easy to flirt with them. However, after the new rule had been put into place, he flirted with them less. Sticking to people from the academy, who proved much more difficult to flirt with._

.

 _Christopher, despite being the Ultimate Lucky Student, seemed to have entered the school via bad luck. However, bad luck is still a kind of luck. He didn't seem to make many friends during his year at the academy._

.

 _David was another outcast, but this one, never really let anyone get near him. He spent all his time alone whenever he could. Always making weapons. Although he did make himself a mental note not to kill anyone at the academy._

.

 _The first four month Delilah was here, she was a mental wreck. She was the definition of insanity, however. After about four or five months in, all signs of insanity seemed to be lifted. At least from what we could tell, it's very well she was just hiding it for the camera._

.

 _Eliza did not do much at school, however she did help out with the one of her friends jobs. Which was the school news. Also, she seemed to have caught the interest of some black haired boy who was seen around her a lot._

.

 _Gabriel was immediately added into the Student Council upon entry to the academy, simply for his title. And he proved to be very useful to the Council, eventually becoming the Council president._

.

 _Jenna was pretty chaotic with her time at the school. She normally holed up in a lab doing experiments. Many of which were questionable at best. One of the experiments blew up the entire lab and almost killed her._

.

 _Larissa was pretty chaotic with her time at Hope's Peak. She would always roam around the school during her free time, probably in an attempt to match people together. Sometimes she made the situation awkward, however, most of the time she actually helped two people who were in love, confess. She started doing it less frequently when she started hanging out with a guy._

.

 _Marisa was admitted to the school's newspaper role, however, she didn't seem completely into it, stating that she rather do it on a different topic. Although, she still complied and wrote superbly._

.

 _This info is classified._

.

 _Terra, despite her title, was one of the rare people who actually went to class. Her reasoning was that she couldn't stand her parents at home. She also seemingly did super well in school. It is difficult to reason with her._

.

 _Tristan was always seen nearby the garden or at least near an animal. Thus, he was rarely in class. He rather spend his time outside. One thing about him is he dislikes when people feel bad for him. In his eyes, no one should feel bad about him._

.

 _Xi is, well, Xi. He isn't as insane as Delilah, but he still caused problems. Although he seems to have proven more helpful than anything, choosing to working on treating several mental illnesses. He had pretty much helped everyone at the school improve._

.

Everyone had info on their date of birth, blood type, high school they attended. Also what their talent was, however, Nonam's talent was not written.

"Well, this won't help us in finding out who killed Delilah." Arianna frowned.

Chase shook his head. "Well, this could be useful after. We should probably head back to the crime scene." He started to walk away.

Having no reason to say no, she followed Chase back up to the third floor.

Upon entering the crime scene again, the first thing Arianna noticed was that the trashcan was fixed, and for some reason, now upside down. "Hmm…" She would check that in a bit, for now she needed to talk to Eliza and Xi. She walked over to Eliza. "Hey, what did you do with that vial of glue?"

"Oh? The vial of glue?" She said nervously. "I just needed to fix something, and Delilah told me that there should still be some leftover glue made by Jenna." Most of what she said seemed to be true. She was going to press further on when.

"Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Dong!" A voice called out. Normally it would be the school announcement system that made the sound, but instead, Monokuma was standing right behind them. "Sorry, the system seems to be faulty. So I decided to come tell you myself! The time for the investigation is over! So please head on over to the trial ground!"

 _The system seems to be faulty? Why would the system be in the midst of failing? Especially at a time like this? Does it have to do with the power outage?_

Arianna turned around to talk to Eliza again, however, she was gone. And so was Chase. The only person left in the room was Xi.

 _Dammit, well, time to ask Xi some things._

"Hey Xi, you were keeping watch of the Training Room, right?" She asked him.

He looked over at Arianna. "Only for a bit, then I left to attend to other matters."

 _Somehow, I doubt that._

"What about the katana? Chase said he had fetched it for you."

He started to think. "No, I don't believe I asked Chase to get me a katana. Nor did he hand me it." Once again, this didn't seem like a lie. But it was Xi, so he could probably easily lie. "We should probably head to the trial grounds, we wouldn't want to keep Monokuma waiting." With that, he left the room, leaving Arianna alone.

She let out a low sigh and followed after him.

 _I'm not going to get any useful info out of any of them._

She soon made it to the first floor, where the elevator was waiting to bring them all to the trial ground.

Once it got there, they all entered the elevator in silence. The elevator was pretty roomy, since you know, eleven people had died since they first entered.

 _But why had things turned out like this in the first place? None of this needed to happen again. All because someone couldn't resist the urge to kill?_

After a while, the elevator doors opened, and the trial grounds were seen.

The podiums were there for them, empty. Although twelve of the places had images. One for Catrina, with two musical notes crossed against each other. One for Christopher with an X across it. One for Terra with an skull covering. One of Jenna with an x on her face. One with Gabriel with a x on his face. One of Tristan with an x across his face. One of Arti with two small swords crossed against each other. And one of David, with an X across his face, although it looked like it was bleeding. One for Larisas with a broken heart. One for Marisa with the X in a special font. One for Nonam, this one was a normal X. One for Delilah, who had an X, but the lines were all distorted.

Everyone slowly walked to their podiums. When everyone settled it, it was finally time to start.

 _The killing game was finally over and we should have all worked together._

Several pictures appeared.

One of Arti reaching for his Katana in his sheath. The picture was redded out.

One of Eliza this time, she was wearing Marisa's hat, covering the top half of her eyes with it.

One of Terra, with her arms crossed, looking the other way. The picture was redded out

One of David playing around with a knife. The picture was redded out.

One of Jenna adjusting her glasses, clearly flipping someone off. The picture was redded out.

 _However one person just wanted to kill Delilah for the hell of it. She was the traitor, but she didn't deserve to die._

One of Arianna rolling her eyes.

One of Marisa writing things down in a notebook. The picture was redded out.

One of Tristan holding a mouse in his hands. The picture was redded out.

One of Catrina listening to headphones. The picture was redded out.

One of Chase with his hands behind his back, acting chill.

One of Christopher looking worried. The picture was redded out.

 _And now because of them, we need to go through this one more time._

One of Larissa holding her hands together. The picture was redded out.

One of Xi looking like pure malice with his crazy eyes.

One of Delilah with an adorable face, trying to be seductive. This one was redded out.

One of Gabriel, covering his mouth, in deep thought. The picture was redded out.

One of Nonam, right in the middle, looking confident. This one was redded

 _But I will find out who did this, despite the implications._

.

.

.

Class Trial

In Session

.

.

.

"So." Chase started up. "What do we need to talk about first?"

Xi shook his head lightly. "Let's start with what caught my attention. The way the body was found for one. It reflected several things."

"Yeah." Arianna nodded. "It did. It reflected every previous murder that happened. The first murder was reflected with the shattered disco ball that was spinning. The second one was reflected by having Delilah's body suspended upside down. The third one with the bloody saw. The fourth one was being pinned against the wall and the missing fingers. And the most recent one, was the use of the spears."

Chase started to think. "It would seem that way. What reason would the killer have to set up the scene like that?"

Xi smirked. "From my viewpoint, it seemed that the killer wanted to make Delilah suffer the pain the victims went through."

"T-that's terrible." Eliza mumbled, looking away.

"Either that, or to hide something from us." Arianna pointed out.

"Hide what, exactly?" Xi seems sceptical.

Arianna mentally rolled her eyes. "That was probably all done in an effort to hide the cause of death."

"Yeah." Eliza agreed. "There was a shattered glass near Delilah's body. It looked like some liquid was in it."

"Not to mention I found a bottle of poison labeled RJ poison." Arianna said.

Chase started to think. "Yeah, the bottle of R&J, it was in Delilah's room. But I've never heard of it before."

"RJ" Arianna mumbled.

"But why was it in Delilah's room?" Xi asked. "Doesn't that seem a little odd that the victim would have been carrying the poison?"

 _That is true, it does seem weird, although someone could have easily broken into her room. But the room did not look like it had been broken into._

"Well, there is one way it could have gotten there." Chase started to think. "The only way I can think of is that Delilah brought it herself."

Xi shook his head. "What reason would Delilah have to bring it with her."

"M-maybe she was trying to kill someone herself?" Eliza said.

"That's plausible…" Arianna started to think. "I don't think there would be a trial, had she killed someone. Monokuma would have let it slide."

"That's some bold accusation!" Monokuma called out. "There would have been a trial either way. Probably."

"That probably is what worries me." She let out a sigh.

Xi shook his head. "Let's just ignore Monokuma right now. He is not worth our time."

"Right." She shook her head.

"Why did they bring a different bottle?" Eliza asked. "C-couldn't they have just brought the poison bottle?"

"Well I assume they didn't want whoever their target was to notice the poison." Chase said. "I'm more concerned about when she did the switch."

"Probably when she blocked me off from her room." Arianna said. "She wouldn't let me into her room when I was going into all of them."

Eliza blushed embarrassingly. "Y-you went into our rooms?"

"Well I needed to watch the second part of the video. Also all the doors were opened, besides Marisa's, who Xi opened up." She said.

"The only person who could reasonably have opened up all those doors would be Monokuma." Chase said.

"Hmm? Little ol' me?" Monokuma tilted his body. "I might have done something like that, but, nothing is guaranteed."

As always, Monokuma wasn't being helpful. "Right now, it doesn't matter who opened the door. We can worry about it later. If Delilah brought the poison, I'm sure it was when I saw her at the dorms. Although I'm not sure if she still had when I saw her in the art room."

"W-what was she doing in the art room?" Eliza asked.

"I don't know." Arianna started to think. "There was nothing in there anyways. It was probably because of her."

"As of now, this doesn't seem pertinent to the case at hand." Xi said. "We need to know who could have went into the room."

Arianna nodded. "I agree, now, I don't have an alibi, however, I was on the fifth floor around the time of the murder. Although, that time of death is pretty loose because there is a half hour gap."

"Monokuma, would you care to elaborate?" Xi asked.

"Well the only reason I would ever do that, is if the time of death told us who the killer is." He started up. "Nothing more, nothing less." That last part was said with a little of nervousness.

"That doesn't seem reassuring." Arianna sighed again.

"Well we can try and narrow down when people could have gone." Xi said. "We'll take Arianna's word that she was on the fifth floor, however. She was also the one to discover the body."

"Are you accusing me?" She crossed her arms.

"No, not at all." Xi smirked. "It's just that with so little people left, we each have a 25% odds of being the killer."

"Those are, some terrible odds." Eliza frowned, she looked at everyone one by one.

"Moving on," Arianna said. "I can give off alibis for people before the murder happened. When I first went up to the third floor, Eliza was in the arcade room. However, she left before me and vanished."

"I-I had remembered something." She mumbled.

"The next person I saw, was Xi. He was waiting in front of the locked room. Like he was guarding it."

"I mean you can interpret it that way." He shrugged.

"Next, was Chase, who I passed by the stairs to the fourth floor. He told me to meet him in the Training Room. However, he said he left after about ten minutes. The meeting time was about the time the power went out. But before that, I already mentioned I met Delilah in the Art Room."

"Well, I did go there, however, you never showed up. I can't believe I was stood up."

Arianna let out a sigh. "I got distracted by the fifth floor. I found a little more info."

"Some new info? Like what?" Xi smiled.

"Well, for one, the spears that were on the fifth floor, were missing. Despite a lot of the previous set up still being there." She mentioned. "Which means someone went there to gather the spears."

"That could have been at any time." Chase frowned.

"W-what if someone was going to kill Delilah before Monokuma made the announcement, and they didn't want their plans to go to waste?" Eliza mumbled.

"Plausible, but even then, normally they should have stopped." Arianna said. "And maybe Delilah was trying to protect herself by asking Monokuma for that last trial to reveal the full truth. So that would mean she knew what the killer was doing."

"It is possible that Delilah knew what was going on." Chase said. "However, shouldn't we figure out who could have done it first."

"Right." Arianna sighed. "Let's start with the door to the Training Room. Specifically the lock."

"The lock was like any other, you locked it from the inside." Xi said.

"Would it be possible to reverse pick lock to lock the door from the outside?" Eliza asked.

"Highly unlikely." Xi smiled. "That is not how locks work. You pick a lock by moving the internal mechanics upwards to fit the cylinder, allowing the handle to turn. You can't reverse the process for that reason."

"So we can safely assume someone was inside the Training Room." Arianna pointed out.

"Very likely." Xi smirked.

 _Well, with the info I have obtained, it would make sense if they were in there._

Arianna looked around at everyone. "Well everyone had an alibi around that time. However it is between Eliza, and Delilah. However, I didn't see Eliza since after that encounter in the arcade. And Delilah had plenty of time to be in the Training Room and leave." She looked at Eliza. "But for now, I'll assume it's you."

Eliza looked at Arianna, very worried. "Y-yes, but only because there was something I needed to fix." She mumbled. "T-that's what the glue was for."

"But why lock the door." Arianna looked at her.

"I-I was trying to avoid Delilah…" She looked down.

 _That can't be the real reason. I need to press forward, but, I just can't bring myself to do it._

"Well, we'll see if that's the truth later." Arianna let out a sigh. "At least we know for sure she did go. And that the glue was used. Now, the katana." She turned towards Chase. "Apparently Xi never received the katana."

"Strange…" Chase looked over at Xi. "I clearly remembering giving it to him."

"But yet, I have no recollection of that." He smirked. "I wonder why that is."

"Probably because you want to try and put me under suspicion." Chase called him out.

Xi shook his head. "The only reason I would try and do that, was if I were the killer. Or if I knew you were. Which would it be?" He smirked.

"But why does the katana matter?" Eliza spoke up.

Arianna turned towards her. "What do you mean?"

"N-nothing at the scene of the crime seem related to the katana. It was just there, but it was used on nothing. At least it would appear so."

 _That is a good point. But, she could just be trying to defend Chase._

"I see what you mean, it was just kinda lying there off to the side." Xi said. "No signs that it was used on anything. The saw did all the cutting."

"Yeah…" She started to think.

 _Then why was the katana even brought in the first place. Was that originally the murder weapon? Then why the sudden change. A lot of things don't add up._

"So, we have pretty much concluded on the poison being the cause of death?" Chase asked.

"I think so" Eliza mumbled.

"The only question." Chase started to think. "Did Monokuma give her th-"

"Nope. All poisons must be homebrewed here." He said.

Xi started to think. "So one of us made this poison."

That's when Arianna realized something. "And I think I know who made it…"

 _Yes, the person who made it, was…_

"Terra was the one who made it. She even left a video about it. Probably in case it was used against her. Although the video cut off and she never got to explain what it did. But she mentioned whoever asked for it, also told her about a recording function on the Monopad. So now that I think about it, the only person who could have done that would have been Delilah. She's the only one of us who would have known about it beforehand."

"Eh." Xi let out a low chuckle. "To think someone would use that against Delilah. So unfortunate." He smiled to himself.

"What's so funny." Arianna crossed her arms.

He shrugged. "Nothing, I'm just thinking how much Delilah has worked to survive, just to die at the end. Such a _tragedy_."

She glared at Xi. "I know that none of you liked her, nor did I. But our lives still ride on the outcome of this trial. So please don't do anything to throw us off."

"Haven't you learned, Arianna. It's what I do best." He smirked.

"Yes, it's what you do. But this is different in a way." She looked at everyone. "You seem to be stalling a lot. You know who the killer is." She called him out. "And not because you are a psychologist. I think you know who the killer is because you saw it happen."

Xi, remained silent, which was very weird, because, well, he rarely remained calm.

"Well…?" She asked.

He shrugged again. "I may or may not have…"

"Xi…" Arianna glared at him hard.

He let out a shrug. "She had it coming."

"Who did it…" She asked him.

"Why would I tell you that?" He looked up at her. "If you really want to know, find out yourself."

Arianna looked at Chase and Eliza. "Are you two involved in this?"

They both remained silent.

 _This can't be true, all three of them are involved in this? No… I refuse to believe that! However, they aren't trying to defend themself. So is it true, all three of them were involved in this murder. Why, why did they have to kill again. We had a chance to end this! And they all went to ruin it! God fucking dammit!_

"Xi, don't drag us down with you…" Chase said. "We had literally nothing to do with this…" He glared at him.

"You guys seem to never play along." He frowned. "Then what are you insisting?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but what if there was a reason her hand was cut like that?" He pointed out.

"What about it?" Xi looked at him.

"It was significantly smaller because of it. I think it was small enough to slip her hand in and out…" He pointed out. "And it was one part of the murder that seemed weird. No one had their hand cut off, ever, so why was hers…"

"What are you implying?" Arianna crossed her arms.

"I'm saying, what if Delilah did this to herself." He said. "She's crazy enough…" He let out a sigh. He glanced at a watch he strangely had. Weird. "I don't know why she would do it, the only reason I can think of is that she wanted to take us all out with her. But that doesn't explain why Xi is doing this." He glared at him.

"I'm doing it purely for my entertainment."

Suddenly trial grounds shook a little.

At that, Chase looked at his watch again, letting a little smile. "But seriously. Who would be crazy enough to use all six victims to make the murder. Not to mention the involvement of the poison."

 _I can tell right now that he's lying. He's not even hiding it. And why does he keep checking his watch? And since when did he get a watch? What the fuck is going on?_

"Does it seem possible?" Chase looked at Arianna.

"No. No it doesn't." She glared at him. "For one, there would be no way her face would be in so little pain. Especially if she was stabbing herself with spears. Her face would be much more in pain if they had all been stabbed in by her. So obviously, someone else had to have do the stabbing."

Chase remained silent.

"Delilah called us…" Eliza mumbled. "She called us for a meeting. She had spears and poison…" Eliza looked at the ground. "We didn't know what to do…" She admitted. "Chase and Xi reacted first, getting the poison out of her hands…"

 _Is she confessing what happened. What even is going on anymore…_

"Chase gave her the poison, and Xi did the wall thing. She already had the equipement there…" She continued. "But… I'm not sure what killed her. If the spears did, or if the poison did…" That last part seemed half truth.

 _So either Chase or Xi killed her. Unless Eliza herself did it and she won't say it. I highly doubt she did it. So my two options are either Chase or Xi. Does Monokuma even know what the correct choice is?_

"So, what I've gathered from that is that. Chase killed her, with the poison. It probably killed her long before all the spears had entered her body." Arianna started.

Eliza covered her mouth, realizing she had probably just sent Chase to his death.

Chase glanced at his watch, and seemingly mumbled something about ten minutes.

Arianna was going to ignore everything Chase had to say. And went straight to the telling of the events.

.

Act 1: This morning, Monokuma told us that the killing game was over. However, Delilah suggested a little thing to mix it up. If we could find the secrets of the school, we could escape. If we couldn't, we had to resume the killing game. So, everyone started their own search. However, Delilah apparently had something else in mind. She called upon people, most likely Xi first, who presumably called upon Eliza and the culprit, asking them to bring something to the training room. I don't know why they brought it, as it wasn't used in the murder, but they brought it anyways.

.

Act 2: Delilah had set some stuff in the Training Room previously, probably hidden. All she had left to do was get the poison from her room. The poison, that would end up being her downfall. The poison itself was made by Terra while back. It's called the RJ Poison. I've never heard of this poison, so the effects still remain unknown. While getting the poison, she crossed paths with me, trying to enter her room. She made sure I had no access to it, and left.

.

Act 3: This was around the time Eliza and the culprit had gathered what they need, probably to throw off the crime scene. Or maybe Delilah wanted them to bring it. That is also unclear. By the time I made it to the third floor, the katana was already in the room, placed by the culprit. When Eliza had gotten out of my sight, she had gone to the Training Room, the scene of the crime, to bring the glue vial.

.

Act 4: I tried entering the room, however, it was locked, and Xi refused to let me in. Eliza was probably currently in the room. So, I decided to leave. On my way to the fourth floor, I met up with the culprit, who had asked me to go the Training Room. I was going to go originally, but I had lost track of time. On the fourth floor, I met up with Delilah in the Art Room. I don't know what she was doing, but she told me she had some other matters to attend to. She left to head downstairs. This was probably my one and only chance to save her.

.

Act 5: Delilah made it to the Training Room to meet up with the other three. She probably had intentions to kill them all right there, based off the the stuff she had brought. She revealed all the equipment she had, only to be assaulted by the culprit and Xi. culprit made Delilah drink the poison. Xi took up the next part, probably sawing part of her hand off, and the three fingers with it. Then, he tied her up, and started stabbing her with the spears that had killed Marisa. It was probably Xi's idea to set it up like all the other ones, or at least, he might have interpreted it that way.

.

Act 6: Before Xi could finish stabbing Delilah, she had already succumbed to the effects of the poison. Which is odd in this scenario, since they had taken many methods from the other murders, but not the cause of death. However, that was probably to throw us off in the long run. However, it was unavoidable that I would come to this conclusion, especially after that confesion.

.

The only person who could have committed this crime was the Ultimate Flirt, Chase Snips."

.

.

.

"Wow!" Monokuma said. "I'm glad that's over!" He let out his famous laugh. "Want to know what? This is starting to bore me. There was only supposed to be five of these. So let's go right into voting time!"

Chase looked at his watched again. Mouthing the words three minutes left.

"Wait no!" Eliza called out.

"Shut up brat!" He yelled out at Eliza. "Please cast your votes, now."

Arianna looked down at her screen. She looked up at Eliza, who was looking away from her screen. And then at Xi, who leaning on the edge of the podium, completely ignoring the voting screen. She then looked at Chase, who was looking back at her.

"Arianna, I know you are not going to listen to me. But please, don't vote…"

 _Who the hell does he think he is telling me what to do? I'm voting for his ass!_

She went to jam the button for his face but stopped.

 _But…_

She looked back at the three of them. She retracted her hands. The timer for the voting ending.

"Let's see who everyone voted for! Will you choose th- Wazzut?" He looked over at the votes. "What! How did not a single person vote? Arianna, I thought you were better than that! You just let Chase escp-"

"Nope." Chase shook his head.

Monokuma looked angrily at him. "You are the killer!"

"Do you even accurately know who the killer is?" He smirked.

"Well, I mean…." He started to sweat. "It would only make sense that it's you."

"Did you see the murder happen?" Chase looked at him. "Because if you did, you would have clearly known it wasn't me who did it.

"Then it was Xi!" Monokuma yelled out.

Xi shook his head. "Nice try."

"Then it's E-"

Chase sent a glare at Monokuma. "She'd never do it, and you know it."

Monokuma turned towards Arian-.

"No." She said coldly.

"Stop playing around with me! Who killed Delilah."

Xi smirked. "None of us did."

He looked over at Xi, seeing the implications. "Are you accusing _me_ of doing it!"

"No." Chase shook his head. "No one here did it."

"Then are you implying Delilah did it?" He asked him.

"No to that too." He smirked.

"Then who killed her!" He yelled out, more furious than ever.

"No one." He said. "No one killed her." He showed his watch, which now struck 'midnight' or at least zero. "Because…" The screens started to lit up behind him as he smirked. "No one died."  
"Hello!" The voice from the monitor said. "Almost couldn't survive a trial without me, huh?" Delilah face was on the monitor. She waved at everyone with her left hand, still clearly cut.

 _What. The. Fuck._

.

.

.

Intermission.

.

.

.

 _What. The. Fuck._

"Hello!" Delilah repeated to everyone, even Monokuma had gone silent.

Chase shook his head. "Did you get what you want?" He seemed mad at Delilah.

"Aww! What's with that attitude! Of course I got what I wanted!" She giggled. "I only had to blow open two walls!"

"Hey!" Monokuma shouted. "That's against school rules! I heard the punishment for breaking them is very severe!"

Delilah laughed a little bit, before her eyes seemed fueled by insanity. "I don't give a fuck about any rules!"

Arianna looked at Monokuma, and then Delilah. "What the hell is even going on?"

Xi shook his head. "It's complicated."

Arianna sent a glare towards Xi. "I didn't fucking ask you."

"Well someone's a little hostile." Xi smirked.

"A little hostile?" She kept glaring at him. "Everyone seemed to be in on the plan but me!"

Chase looked the other way. "I… I tried to get you in on it…"

.

 _She read over the article a few more times, frowning. "Well, I guess this could help me with something. But I'm not sure what…" She let out a notable sigh and left the room. "That's it for the third floor, I guess it's time for the fourth floor." She headed for the stairs, she started climbing up them when she bumped into someone._

 _It was Chase. "Oh! Sorry about that." He said._

 _Arianna looked at him, he didn't appear to be holding the katana from earlier, nor did Xi have it. "It's OK." She started to walk up the stairs again._

" _Hey, can you meet me in the training room in about thirty minutes?" He asked so suddenly._

What? " _Well, huh… the doors locked." She told him._

 _He shook his head. "It shouldn't be locked then. He sent her a smile. "Remember, thirty minutes! Don't be late." He headed down the stairs._

.

"And that's all you tried?" Arianna asked. "You could have told me what the plan was anyways!"

"I couldn't!" Chase called out. "Not while he was watching!" He pointed towards Monokuma.

Arianna glanced over at Monokuma, and then back at Chase. "So how did you manage to pull this off with him watching?"

Xi stepped into the conversation. "The cameras is what he uses to watch us."

"There hasn't been any cameras! Not from what I could see." Arianna crossed her arms.

"T-they were miniature, according to what Delilah said." Eliza mumbled.

"Yepperino!" Delilah smiled. "It's why there were no blind spots. So the only thing I could reasonably do was turn off all the cameras."

Arianna crossed her arms. "And how did you do that?" She had a feeling what it was, but she wanted confirmation.

"The USB key!" Delilah smiled with her head tilted.

"Of course." Arianna shook her head. "You plugged it in and probably uploaded something."

Delilah let a little laugh out. "When I got the USB, the virus that was on it was already gone."

"What?" Arianna looked at her, confused.

She let out another laugh. "The virus was set to be released the moment it was plugged in! It was also not detectable. So who do you think uploaded the virus?" She continued to laugh with a tinge of insanity.

"Mo-" Arianna started to say, but didn't get time to finish.

"Exactly!" Delilah cheered. "More specifically the mastermind behind this entire operation!"

 _Mastermind…?_

"Delilah…" Chase crossed his arms. "Can you free us now?"

She tilted her head, confused. "Free you?" She thought of it. "Oh! Right!" The pressed a button and it released the watch from Chase, and the bracelet from Eliza. Xi didn't have any.

"What, what was that?" Arianna looked at Chase and Eliza, before turning her attention to Delilah.

Chase rubbed his wrist, seemingly bleeding from the area the watch was. "Something she put on us to keep us quiet…"

Arianna seemed somewhat more mad than before. She glared at Delilah. "Delilah, what the fuck!"

She simply giggled in response. "My friend Jessica made it!"

 _Jessica?_

"Isn't it fun! Hahaha!" She let out a laugh. "It was fun for me."

Chase was still rubbing his wrist. "Wasn't fun for us, you fuck." He mumbled.

"OK, first, how did you even live?" Arianna asked Delilah. "You were poisoned and stabbed!"

"Haha, no I wasn't! That poison didn't kill me!" She smiled softly.

"How did the RJ not ki-" Arianna started to say.

"I told you it was R&J" Chase corrected.

 _Wait, was it actually called R &J- then that means…_

She realized what the poison actually meant. "Wait, no, it can't be that…"

"I think the actress finally figured out what the poison actually is." Delilah smiled.

No, what? "How did you even make the potion from Romeo & Juliet?"

"Honestly." Delilah started to think. "I'm not even sure how Terra did it. She was something else." Delilah gave off a sincere smile, which was weird for her character. That smile turned to a frown before she shook her head. "Anyways, I drank the potion, which is why it fell to the ground and shattered."

 _OK, that explains that, but._

"What about the spears, no way you could have survived that." Arianna called out.

"Oh, it was rather easy." She smiled. "Eliza helped out with it."

Eliza glanced over the other way. "Y-yeah…"

 _Wait, what could have possibly been done to not kill her with the spears._

"Wait, the spears, weren't possibly, missing the tips, were they?" Arianna asked.

"Discarded in a nearby trash can to be discovered." Xi said.

Arianna started to think more. "The glue to keep them up, and the katana to cut them. But then wait…"

 _That means the blood must have come from…_

"The hand…" Arianna said.

"Ding ding!" Delilah hummed. "Really hurted to. I asked them to do it while I was fully conscious."

 _What the fuck._

"Why the fuck would you have it done to you while you were conscious!" Arianna asked, disturbed.

Eliza was shaking her head. "We don't know why!" She seemed just as disturbed.

"It was fun." Xi shrugged.

Chase glared at Xi. "You are twisted, you know."

"I try my best." He smirked.

Arianna really couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You, are all fucking crazy!"

"Oh shush you. You still need to figure out everything else." Delilah crossed her arms.

 _Why do I need to figure everything out?_

She glanced over at Monokuma, who had been silent for a while.

 _What was with him?_

"Everything else?" She asked.

Delilah nodded. "Like how I escaped."

 _How she could have escaped?_

"It was actually mentioned by Chase in a way" Delilah smiled. "Although it was the reverse of what it should have been."

 _What did Chase say?_

"Wait! Are you talking about her hand slipping out of the rope!" Arianna realized.

Chase nodded at Arianna. Eh, so there was some truth in what he said.

"And I'm guessing how she fully got out was…"

 _Yeah… she fully got out because of…_

"The katana, which…" She started to think back to where the katana was placed. "Oh!"

.

 _Eliza called out._

" _Look!" She picked something up, although she had a hard time to carry it._

 _It was Arti's katana, which Chase should have had to bring._

" _Hmm…" She started to think to herself. Things were not looking good for Chase right now. But why was the Katana even here? It doesn't look bloody, so it wasn't used on the victim. So what was it used it for?_

 _Eliza placed it against the wall, right under Delilah._

.

 _That was, done right in front of me…_

"So that's pretty much how I survived!" Delilah smiled. She glanced over at Monokuma, who had been frozen for a bit. What was this mastermind even doing? She smirked to herself. Guess they are scared. But eh, she should probably continue this discussion first. "Anyways, after the trial started. I went around looking for some information. The area that caught my attention is a suspicious crack in the wall in the art room. The area where Arti and David fought. Oh, I guess Larissa was there too. Anyways, I blew it up and found some nice information inside. And it's some reaaally good info."

Chase shook his head. "Delilah, stop wasting our time." He was seemingly getting more annoyed.

"But we should say a review of what was said. There's normally one every trial, and the other one was wrong." She smiled.

.

"Act 1: This morning, Monokuma told us that the killing game was over. However, Delilah suggested a little thing to mix it up. If we could find the secrets of the school, we could escape. If we couldn't, we had to resume the killing game. So, everyone started their own search. However, Delilah apparently had something else in mind. She called upon people, most likely Xi first, who presumably called upon Eliza and Chase, asking them to bring something to the training room. At time, I didn't know why they brought it, but now, it makes sense.

.

Act 2: Delilah had set some stuff in the Training Room previously, for everyone. All she had left to do was get the potion from her room. It's called the R&J Potion, something, which I thought was a poison. I had never heard of it, but once I started to think about it. It standed for Romeo & Juliet, in reference to the potion used by Juliet. While getting the potion, she crossed paths with me, trying to enter her room. She made sure I had no access to it, and left. She probably didn't want me to find the potion prematurally, since I would have done something.

.

Act 3: This was around the time Eliza and the Chase had gathered what they needed. By the time I made it to the third floor, the katana was already in the room, placed by Chase, presumably. When Eliza had gotten out of my sight, she had gone to the Training Room, to bring the glue vial. With that, everything was in place, and they just needed to wait for one crucial thing, turning off the cameras.

.

Act 4: I tried entering the room, however, it was locked, and Xi refused to let me in. Eliza was probably currently in the room. So, I decided to leave. On my way to the fourth floor, I met up with Chase, who had asked me to go the Training Room. I was going to go originally, but I had lost track of time. On the fourth floor, I met up with Delilah in the Art Room. I don't know what she was doing, but she told me she had some other matters to attend to. She left to head downstairs. Now that I think about what she's said, she was probably scoping the area she was going to blow up.

.

Act 5: Delilah made it to the Training Room to meet up with the other three. It was time to set up the plan. The timer went off and all the cameras turned off in the area, allowing Monokuma to not know what was going on. For reasons I don't understand, except maybe to keep her blood flowing more easily, she had part of her hand cut off, including three fingers while she was still conscious. After bleeding for a while, she drank the potion and passed out. Chase and Xi then tied her up like she wanted, against the wall. All in effort to imitate the other murders.

.

Act 6: Then, came the part with the spears. The same spears that had killed Marisa… Xi had cut off the tips of the spears, and Eliza had applied glue to the freshly cut off area. After discarding the spear tips, which I had confused for spikes at the time, the others glued it to her body. But only on parts of her clothes. Probably for the soul reason that she could change shirts after.

.

Act 7: The katana was hid away and some evidence played around with. Once that was done, they left the room, and waited for the cameras to come back on. What they didn't expect, was for me to find out before the cameras to come back on. I discovered the body earlier than it probably should have been. The body was set up in a way to reflect all the past murders, probably has a way to have us think it was to make Delilah go through everything she put the victims through. Then Monokuma appeared to do the announcement. The others shortly arrived later, probably happy that the plan had succeeded.

.

Act 8: Then, came the time for the investigation. It was obvious to the others that Monokuma had no idea who had done it, or how they did it. At least they knew it was obvious. I, was left in the dark. After exploring some bit, Eliza brought to my attention the katana that was in the room. It was the katana that Chase had brought. Once I was done looking at it, she placed right under Delilah. Right, in her reach.

.

Act 9: Once the trial started, Delilah got to work. She slipped her hand out of the rope, and grabbed the katana. She used it to the cut the ropes that were keeping her there. She cleaned herself up a little bit, including probably changing clothes, as to get rid of the spears that were stuck to them. She wasn't worried anymore, as she was off camera.

.

Act 10: Now, all she had left to do was go to the place she had previously scoped out. The Art Room, the scene of a previous murder. Supposedly that murder changed the room ever so slightly, and Delilah noticed something beyond the wall. Armed with a bomb, which I still don't know where she got it from, she blew up the wall, and collected the info. And here we are now…"

.

Delilah tilted her head with a smile. "Yup, that pretty much sums it up." She sent a glance towards Monokuma. "Although he seems rather silent, right now."

"What kind of info did you find…" Eliza asked Delilah, not looking at her.

"Oooo! Glad you asked, in actuality-" Delilah started to say.

"Hey!" Monokuma came back, glaring at Delilah.

She tilted her head. "May I help you?"

"Wait till I find you. Even your own mother won't recognize you." He threatened.

She simply laughed at that statement. "Judging by the fact that you haven't found me yet, I highly doubt you will."

"Well, I can also just simply cut off your video feed." He said, regaining composure.

"BIT-" And then it cut off.

There was a few seconds of silence where everyone looked at each other.

Monokuma let out a fake cough before resuming to talk. "Soooo, what were we talking about?"

 _Ding!_

The sound of a distinct dinging was heard as the door to the elevator opened up, revealing Delilah was actually hiding in it, weird. Apparently there is no cameras in there. "The Queen of insanity is here!" She called out as she made her way to the podium belonging to her.

Monokuma was loudly grumbling to himself. It was obvious Delilah had found something valuable.

"So, how has everyone been?" Delilah asked.

Everyone but Xi was pretty much glaring at her. Even Eliza was, which was rare.

"Haha. Yeah, I deserve this. Buuut, it was all worth it." She tilted her head. "So suck it up!" She took a deep breath, her demeanor changing completely. "Anyways, let's talk about something much more needed."

 _What, did her composure just change. Not just that, but her tone of voice._

"I'll be quite frank with you, this whole thing has flown off the rail, more people were supposed to be alive. I had only planned on four people being lost. But then things happened, and I kinda had do things differently."

Arianna wasn't buying it, and by the looks of everyone else, neither were they. Monokuma, remained silent. "Delilah, what the fuck are you talking about?"

She seemed to be talking to herself. "I got the ball rolling, that was supposed to get me trusted, but huh…" She was ignoring everyone. "And then that last one…" She looked at everyone else. "Oh, yeah. You are still here."

"Delilah…" Chase crossed his arms. "Explain yourself."

She tilted her head towards Chase before realizing. "Oh! Shit! I forgot to say it. I never lost my memories."

 _What. The. Fuck._


	14. Chapter 6: Stand Separated - Part 3

_How did Delilah also not lose her memory? Wait, that makes me more curious on why Nonam didn't lose his memory either. How did he avoid that?_

"Yeah, the people who were in charge of it did a very poor job. All I did was act insane like I used to be, and it seemed to have work." She looked the other way. Once again, this was all said without her usual insanity.

"B-but…" Eliza started to say.

Delilah looked back at everyone. "It doesn't really excuse the actions I've done here, but I'll be honest, when I claimed to have somehow persuaded everyone to kill. It was a lie, mostly." She looked away again. "I did place that fake bomb into the locker in hopes of getting things started. But that was mostly me trying to get the masterminds trust. Apparently that wasn't enough. So I started thinking of other ways to get their trust. All it got me was Nonam's motive video so I could stop acting like I didn't know about him. Then came Terra's case. I actually wasn't trying to make Jenna kill Terra, because, frankly, they were close friends at school. So, I thought if I got them working together in the lab, they could make something. More specifically that potion I eventually got Terra to make since Jenna refused to work with Terra. I didn't have the knowledge that she had Terra's video. And if I did say I knew she had her video, that was just a lie to make the mastermind trust me more"

 _None of what she is saying is true. It has to all be a lie!_

Delilah continued after briefly stopping to let Arianna think in her head. "With Tristan, he had asked me to show him how the video worked. I showed him, and he let me watch it with him, for some reason. Out of curiosity, I told him about the second video, hoping something good might be there. Upon seeing the video, I knew I hit jackpot and hoped Tristan would do something smart with the information. I guess I overestimated what he was going to do." She took a short break, glancing occasionally at Monokuma, who seemed like he was frozen again. She let out a smirk. It seemed he was troubled now that his prized player had gone off the railing. "Then for what happened with Arti. Well, frankly, I didn't want Arti to use it. I was just looking for the spears at the time. I stumbled upon a gun, and he walked in around that time. I had to explain to him that I found the gun there. I think the reason why he brought it was once again, to do with how he didn't want to get away with the murder. Since I would know he knew about it, I would suspect him immediately. I didn't expect him to have been a victim, too. Nor did I expect him to have killed himself." She took a small pause to realize some of the bad things she's done. "Then, came the fifth trial. I've realized the only way to get the full trust of the mastermind and get the USB with the virus, which was also made by Jessica, by the way, was to kill the thorn in their side. I didn't want to kill Nonam, since we talked before this whole ordeal happened, and we were going to end it together. However, we had to act our own parts, so we never really got the chance to plan things. I didn't have any talent that allowed me to act, but I was a good liar, so I used that. Not to mention I used the be the people I was acting, so it made it easier. Nonam was probably not expecting me to sacrifice him. And, he probably would have called me out on things. But I think he realized that I had my reasons. Since if I was truly working for Monokuma, I would have told him that Nonam never lost his memories." She took another break.

 _Jesus Christ, will she let us ta-_

Delilah quickly continued. "And when it came to Marisa, I didn't want her dead. I had even went to all that effort to give her the laptop."

Arianna froze for a second. "W-wait! Laptop!"

Monokuma snapped out of being frozen. "What laptop? I never saw a laptop!"

 _So the cameras going out where true! That's why Monokuma never found out!_

"Oh, that, I made it so that the laptop would randomly send a jamming to the cameras, whenever someone is in the room."

 _That would explain why it happened to me._

"Before the cameras officially got rolling, I put the computer into the desk with the special features that were already added to it. Jessica works wonders…" She smiled.

"B-but if Marisa was important to something, why did you kill her off anyways?" Eliza asked, even if she knew she would have been the other target.

"Well…" Delilah trailed off a little bit. "To put it simple, I didn't want her ruining my plan, which I've come so far to complete. But I had to act fast…" She looked away.

 _She didn't want to do it? But did it anyways. She just makes me more mad everytime she talks._

"And finally, I got the full trust of the mastermind and received the USB. Which I didn't actually need anymore, since the virus was already in the system, undetectable. Although I did have the trigger for it so I could start it whenever I wanted. Then I got the info I needed, and here we are." She looked at everyone, smiling.

Chase sent a glance towards Arianna before looking back at Delilah. "It better have been worth it, you fuck."

Delilah took out some papers from her shirt, which was stored… yeah… "Well, I got myself two documents. One about the school and one about helping us find out the mastermind. Well, at least one of them will."

"Start with the one that helps us." Chase said.

Delilah let out a little giggle. "What would be the fun with that? I'm going to say the not so important one."

"Which is, the only true way to do this." Xi smirked.

Delilah looked through the two papers she had. "Here we go." She showed it to everyone.

It was a blueprint of the school, it seemed. The most glaring thing that was present was the title of the blueprints:

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 _Hope's Peak Academy Replica._

 _Rebuilt for the sole reason of detaining._

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 _What?_

Delilah threw the paper behind her. "Basically, this isn't the _real_ Hope's Peak Academy."

"W-wait! What do you mean it's not the real Hope's Peak!" Eliza asked.

"Well, it's just a replica, like it says. Made to detain someone, basically." She smiled.

Chase crossed his arms. "This, is still some heavy info. Does it say who built this replica? That might tell us who is keeping us hostage!"

She glanced back at the paper before shaking her head. "That's… not important right now."

"Now." Xi started talking. "What about this second clue you mentioned?"

"Right!" She started reading over the second paper she had. "This school has been built in order to rehabilitate fourteen students and one traitor. As well has having someone be able to run things in the back." She lowered the paper. "If I had to guess, Nonam was the traitor to whoever put us here. And the one person running this is of course, the mastermind…"

"Wait…" Arianna said. "You aren't implying one of the sixteen students here is actually running this?"

Delilah placed the paper on her podium. "That's exactly what's implied in this of the the sixteen people here are forcing us to do this!"

"T-that's ludicrous!" Chase called out.

Eliza started nodding her head. "How could a fellow classmate do that?"

"Look! I don't know how or why, all I know is that it's one of the students!" Delilah was getting somewhat mad.

"Does that include us, perhaps?" Xi crossed his arms.

"I've already excluded everyone here from the suspect list. If any of you three were the mastermind, you would have put a stop to this mess."

Arianna glared at Delilah. "As for me?"

"As for you? I can mark you off because you spent all the time searching around for clues, which I do hope you will share with us when the time comes." She started thinking a little more. "Not just that, but whoever Monokuma was, clearly had to look at some monitors. So since we were all here, I doubt it's actually one of us."

 _Do I really have a choice to believe this… but… Delilah faking her death is proof that someone else could have very well played dead on purpose? But, one of the people who was supposed to be our friend? I know this sounds ridiculous. But the whole time I've been here, a ridiculous thing after another as happened. So maybe this is true. But it could be another one of her lies. I… I can't know for sure..._

Delilah coughed a little bit, looking at everyone else. "So let's starting, the best course of action is to start eliminating suspects off our list."

Xi smirked. "Well given how much trust you seemed to put towards Marisa and Nonam, may it be alright to remove them off the suspect list?"

"Not to mention I'm pretty sure Marisa is very dead with how she was found... " Chase looked down.

"Yes, we can remove those two. The information we have already covers them off the list of potential suspects." Delilah looked away. "But the same can't be said for the others."

"W-well…" Eliza said, twiddling her fingers. "I-I think Gabriel is out of the question…"

"That is very true…" Xi agreed. "His entire head was pretty butchered. And Tristan would have said something, had it been a fake body…"

"Right." Delilah nodded.

"What about Tristan's execution?" Arianna suggested. "He was shredded to pieces."

Delilah nodded again. "Yeah, that too."

 _What other deaths couldn't have been faked…?_

Arianna quickly thought up of two other people. "Terra was electrocuted with her head under the water, so she should be dead either way. As for Jenna, she kinda melted right in front of us…"

"Yeah…" Chase mumbled. "Then that leaves us with five people, Arti, Catrina, Christopher, Dav-"

"David is dead as dicks." Delilah said. "He had so many knives in him. Wasn't one in his head or neck?" Delilah said.

Chase sighed. "Right, but that still leaves us with four people. Arti, Catrina, Christopher, and Larissa…"

Monokuma perked up strangely. "Well, this is how this is going to work! Debate a little longer and then, the voting time will happen. If you are correct with the vote, I'll let you all go! However, get it wrong, and you'll have to stay here and continue the killing game!" He laughed at that last part.

"Let's discuss the one who died the most recently, Larissa." Xi suggested.

"Yeah, her execution was sketchy at the end…" Chase said.

"Sketchy, how?" Eliza asked.

"If you recall, we didn't actually see her get killed." He brought up.

Arianna realized what he meant. "You are right, it cut off before she had her head cut off. I guess we all just assumed what had happened."

Delilah shook her head. "Assumptions can be deadly, especially in a game like this."

"Why would Monokuma not show us, her getting decapitated, unless it was to hide was truly happened." Chase started thinking.

"But what about trying to save Arti?" Eliza brought up.

Arianna started to think deeply. "It was possible, if she was the mastermind, that she actually wanted Arti to live till the end."

Xi crossed his arms. "And she would have had access to camera footage to know exactly what was happening. It's strange she didn't actually make a move until Arti was losing, or that's at least how I remember things."

"Didn't she also get her memories back?" Eliza added.

"Oh!" Delilah had just thought of something. "What if she wanted the memories so no one else would know about them?"

"Hmm…" Xi started to think. "Yes, that is very likely. It would be a very mastermind way to do things."

 _But, is Larissa really the one running this operation? I don't have any evidence to deny it._

"Let's not vote right away." Arianna said. "I still think we should discuss why the other people could possibly the mastermind, first."

Xi nodded "I do agree with that statement, most of those could be mere coincidences, or, Monokuma trying to trick us."

"Accusations get you nowhere with me." He said.

Chase ignored what Monokuma said. "Then let's move on to Arti, he could also be the mastermind."

"Yes, Arti apparently didn't want to get away with the crime." Delilah said. "He might have planned to kill David to get rid of him, and fake his execution, however. Larissa got in the way and he had to fake things."

"However…" Xi started talking again. "What a crude way to fake things nonetheless. He could have simply faked that Larissa had killed him. There was no need to shoot himself in the back to clear Larissa of some guilt. It just doesn't add up, really. That could push that Larissa is the mastermind even more. Shooting him to make sure he was dead."

"I don't think Larissa would do that!" Eliza shouted out.

Xi smirked. "Did you not see the state she left David in? Making sure he was very dead."

"I-" Eliza was trying to think of something to stay, but remained silent.

"All this does is loopback to Larissa…" Delilah said. "Although I don't think it's her either, maybe we should keep discussing other people before coming up with any actual conclusion."

"Next on our list would be Catrina…" Arianna said. "What do we have going against her?"

Xi thought for a few moments. "Well, the whole thing about her death is kinda fishy. How she was even able to stay conscious while everyone else had passed out. Supposedly she was out of reach of the gas. But, it's a gas, which should have spread rather quickly. And, unless she held her breath the entire time, she would have passed out."

"So what you are saying is, as the mastermind, she could have potentially known she was being targeted and tried fighting back." Chase said.

"Ultimately losing and playing dead." Delilah added onto that. "Not as believable as Larissa being the mastermind, however…"

 _Hmm… it does seem like Larissa is the best candidate there is… however…_

"Hey… how good is the luck of an Ultimate Lucky Student?" Arianna asked.

"Very good, why?" Delilah smiled. "Well it does very from good luck to bad luck, most people tend to have good luck since they need to win a nation wide lottery."

 _Then maybe?_

"Bare with m-" Arianna started talking but was interrupted.

"What about a bear?" Monokuma asked Arianna.

She seemed very annoyed. "I don't have time for this." She said coldly before going back to the conversation at hand. "So, what person would someone with immense luck, just so happen to target?"

"I mean, if his luck was really good, he would have…" Chase started to say but stop. No, it couldn't be that.

"Are you trying to imply that Christopher got lucky with who he was targeting, and it just so happened to be the mastermind?" Xi crossed his arms.

 _I guess that's what I'm trying to have you realize. But does that stack up against Larissa?_

"Yeah, and it would help explain why she stayed conscious during the ordeal. What are the odds that the person you are targeting is going to stay conscious? Especially if you are the Ultimate Lucky Student." Arianna said.

Eliza spoke up. "Yeah, but luck involves both good and bad, so maybe it was a stroke of bad luck he was facing?"

Xi shook his head. "He already had the misfortune of getting got by us in the end. If he had that much bad luck, he wouldn't be able to qualify as the Ultimate Lucky Student."

"And we wouldn't have found a second gas mask at the scene, if it had been damaged." Chase added. "Which is a rule the mastermind probably knew very well."

"Not to mention compared to how some of the other people died." Delilah added. "Electrocution, saw to the head, stabbed in the heart and then pinned to the wall with knives, stabbed in the chest and then shot in the heart, and finally, pierces by several spears shot rapidly. Blunt force trauma seems the less likely to kill. Not to mention a disco ball was used for it. So there's the likelihood that she simply played dead and let Monokuma, who I assume has both an auto pilot mode, and a manual mode for when the mastermind really needs to take over."

Chase nodded again. "So basically she tried to fight, lost miserably because she probably isn't good at fighting, and then had to fake her death. That sounds… very believable…"

Delilah looked at everyone. "So, it's this one or Larissa…"

"I… honestly think Catrina is the most likely candidate." Chase said. "It just makes much more sense that it's her."

Xi nodded at Chase's statement."As much of a twist it would be to see someone like Larissa be the mastermind, I would have to concur. Many other of her actions go against her being the mastermind. Not to mention I didn't see anything off about her during my time knowing her. The same can't be said about Catrina, the first person who supposedly died."

"The evidence stacks up more for Catrina…" Eliza said.

 _Looks like everyone wants Catrina_

"Alright!" Arianna smiled. "I guess it's time to vote." She went to press the vote button but suddenly froze.

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 _Why… am I not moving? I want to vote, but, I can't. It feels like, this vote will be wrong if I continue. But why? The evidence stacks up against her. But, it still feels wrong. When I'm this uncertain, I can't vote! Not with our lives at stake like this! We've come so far, we can't let it end because we were too quick on the draw, But why am I so uncertain? Did I hear someone here is lying? No… that's not it. But something someone said had to be wrong? Like a contradiction? Was it about one of the other people suspected? Or was it about Catrina, the one we are going to vote for. I… I don't know… but, if I think hard enough. Maybe I'll realize the contradiction!_

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 _Wait…_

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 _Catrina never really spent much time at school. She was sent overseas several time during her school life. She had many rich people invite her to host the music part of their party. And she was never one to turn down an offer. But this didn't affect her likelihood to graduate, as attending class wasn't mandatory. She was a little random at times, taking in any suggestions for music, without actually listening to it first, saying she could make any music, good music._ _ **Not only this, but she learned to be very adept at fighting, since the clubs she went to were often attacked. She has even managed to take out an armed person.**_

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 _She wouldn't have lost the fight!_

"Guys! Wait a second!" Arianna called out, everyone stopping around the same time.

Xi looked over at her. "What is the problem?"

"Chase just said Catrina probably had to fake her death since she couldn't beat Christopher in a fight." She said.

Chase crossed his arms. "What about it?"

"This clearly goes against information I've found out." She took out the book she acquired from Delilah's room. "In this, it says Catrina was very good at fighting, since she needed to learn how to when she was overseas a lot."

"Are you saying she would have beaten Christopher?" Eliza mumbled.

"Yeah, she would have no reason to fake her death if she could just kill Christopher directly. So it doesn't make sense…" Arianna said.

"Then…" Delilah started to think. "How _did_ she lose to Christopher?"

 _Wait… yeah… How DID she lose to him?_

"Hmm…" Xi started to think. "I think we found ourselves another path to follow."

Chase had thought of something. "Anything could have happened when we were passed out."

"It wouldn't matter to the mastermind, especially if the person who saw them was going to die anyways…" Delilah said.

"I can even add onto that. The bomb Christopher supposedly found, was in a remote part of school that no one should have been going. He could have found it more easily with his luck, however, I doubt he would have gone there under normal conditions. Unless he knew there was anything to even search there."

"He could have heard the sound of the bomb beeping…" Chase crossed his arms.

"Unlikely, when I tried the thing out for myself, it was a silent timer." Arianna said. "So there's no way he would have been able to hear it. And also, I don't think Catrina would have been able to use a gas mask to stay conscious, because Christopher would have mentioned it during his trial."

"That is rather true. He did say that Catrina was too far. Not that she had any kind of equipment. And he also mentioned she was shocked. But he also said he won the fight between them." Xi said.

"Not to mention…" Chase kept his arms crossed. "He was trapped under a bunch of objects, and seemingly died."

"Yeah." Delilah agreed "We don't know how much the objects weighed, so it could have been barely anything, so he could fake getting crushed."

"If there's no body, that means we can't confirm his death" Xi smirked to himself. "And this one seems even more plausible than Larissa's case. For her, it all involved things she would naturally do. While Christopher, we don't quite know his character all too much. And we've already cleared up why it couldn't be Arti. And now, we know why it can't be Catrina, because to make things easier on her, she would have simply killed Christopher instead. And the only logical explanation that Christopher could have won that fight, was if he had another advantage he couldn't talk about."

"Now…" Chase started. "Are we sure this time…?"

"I think so…" Eliza said.

Arianna sent a glance towards Monokuma, who didn't seem phased.

 _Was whoever was controlling him off doing something off? That was pretty stupid, especially at a moment like this. Unless this was once again the wrong choice and he wanted them to make the mis- No! This one seemed more right than the others. Here, things don't add up at all. This is the only explanation to explain inconsistencies in this murder._

"Let's vote…" Arianna said, looking at the others.

One by one, everyone voted for Christopher. None of them knew for certainty if they were right. But, there wasn't anything else to discuss. It seemed to be the most logical conclusion to them, at least.

Once all the votes were cast, Monokuma started moving a little bit. "What? Done already? Wow. Who'd think you'd be so rash with your decision!"

"It wasn't rash. We thought about it…" Chase glared at Monokuma.

"No matter how much you thought about it, it doesn't change the fact the answer is wrong!" Monokuma laughed. "I can't believe you wasted your time talking over an inconsistency like that!"

"What! W-we're wrong?" Eliza said.

This sounds like a bluff. "Oh, can't believe we are wrong. Since we are wrong, and lost. Why don't you show yourself anyways?"

Monokuma tilted his head. "Why would I do that?"

"I mean, we wouldn't be able to do anything anyways, since we are wrong." She smirked.

"Well, that wouldn't be as fun if I revealed all the mysteries you failed to figure out." Monokuma countered.

Hmm… "But wouldn't you want to see the despair on our face when we realize who it actually is?" She asked.

"Nope!" He replied.

 _Just as I thought, he's backed into a corner._

Arianna smirked "But you would never pass up a chance to cause despair. Something tells me we are right!"

Monokuma was seemingly more angry than before. "Fine! If you want to know soooo bad!" He showed his claws before freezing up a bit, like he was no longer needed for the time being.

Footsteps could be heard walking in the distance. They seemed to be getting closer. The footsteps themselves weren't in any sort hurry, and they seemed rather calm for what was going to be revealed.

 _The moment of truth. Are we right? Or are we wrong… I… I don't know. It can honestly go both ways…_

Soon, the footsteps stopped, and when everyone looked up, they could see someone standing down a hallway. It was too dark to actually see who it was, but there was indeed someone who was standing there. The person started walking towards the trial ground. Soon, they would be casted in light, and everyone would see who it was.

The figure stepped into the light to reveal…

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Christopher Hide…

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Class Trial Intermission

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Everyone, kinda just stood there. They were right, but it was the fact that they were right in the first place. That it was someone that they had known during their time in the killing game. Especially since it was a classmate. What would make a fellow classmate do that to them?

Christopher looked at them, deciding to stay silent.

"So it is you, huh." Delilah said, finally speaking. "This isn't like you, Christopher.

"Don't act as if you knew me…" He said, not wanting to look at anyone. "None of you took the time to get to know me! Only person who really did it was Nonam, but that was only to get info out of me!"

Chase clenched his fist, and held it all in not to punch Christopher right then and there. "So you decided to host this goddamn killing game!"

Christopher shook his head at Chase. "That is not at all why any of this happened. Delilah should know very well why some of this happened."

She tilted her head quizzically. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Christopher just looked at her before sighing. "You are not helping…" He looked back at everyone else. "Delilah knows, but she simply won't tell you what happened. Maybe out of fear of lowering all your spirits. I'll have you know, I did not take your memory, that was _their_ fault"

 _Their…? Who is their?_

"Huh… Who are you talking about?" Arianna asked.

Christopher sighed. "You guys wouldn't remember, well, Delilah would know…" He glanced over at her.

Delilah looked around at everyone. "That isn't important right now! We've won against you Christopher! So please let us out now!"

Christopher shook his head. "I'm sorry, but the people I'm working for would not like that, so I can't let you leave…"

"That's bullshit and you know it!" Chase called out. "What's stopping us from killing you?"

Christopher glanced over at Monokuma. "I have protection…"

 _Dammit! Monokuma! If we try anything, we'll just be attacked!_

"Looks like Arianna realized why…" Christopher pointed out. "But, I'll tell you what! I'll be nice, you all will have a vote in a few minutes. A vote on whether you want to stay, or leave. That will ultimately be up to you to decide. But, for now, let's talk."

"Of course we are going to vote to get the fuck out of here!" Chase shouted.

He let out a smirk. "Will you?"

"Why did you turn out like this, Christopher?" Delilah asked. "You used to be so sweet…"

He shook his head. "I used to, so caring. But I quickly learned that no one cared for me the way I did for others!

"W-what do you mean?" Arianna asked.

"Pushed around, day in, and day out…" He continued on. "I was the center of a bullying conflict! None of you stopped to help! None of you stopped to ask if I was OK!"

"That doesn't give you the right to do this!" Arianna yelled out.

"Y-yeah!" Eliza agreed. "I know bullying is bad, but it doesn't excuse revenge…!"

Christopher, once again, continued to ignore them. "So, one day I stumbled on a few high schoolers talking about something… And I was found eavesdropping something I shouldn't have heard. I braced myself to be killed. However, they didn't, they offered be a spot in their group!" He looked the other way. "This gained me immunity to several things that happened… It's why I was seen to oversee this entire thing! I was given an opportunity to not being pushed around, so I took it! I even got immunity from the school."

 _Immunity, from the school?_

"And may I ask, what do you mean by immunity from the school?" Xi crossed his arms.

Christopher smirked. "Don't you remember… the things you've done?"

"The things…?" Arianna repeated. Suddenly, images flashed in front of her eyes.

All those images.

From the night that's just a blur in her head, and as always been.

The night was spotted by Hope's Peak Academy had always been a blur in her mind. She couldn't do anything about it. She remembers being questioned about it. But she couldn't answer honestly because, she didn't know herself.

"Our class was known as the worst class to ever attend Hope's Peak Academy…" Christopher crossed his arms. "And that's not because we were bad during our time there; We only attended a year at school." He glanced away for a brief second. "No, instead, we were considered the worst class in history to attend that school, for what the school found out we did!"

"What… we did…?" Chase repeated. "But… I swear… I didn't do anything wrong."

"Don't listen to him, guys!" Delilah called out.

Eliza had a tear in her eye. "But I didn't do it!"

Christopher took out a list from his pocket. "I have everything that everyone has done. Let's start with what Catrina did. She supposedly created mesmerizing music that would control people, which as you may know, it's a crime. Terra, she, killed her best friend out of pure hatred or something. Never really found out why she actually did it. Jenna, sold some of the chemicals she had been making to some people, who ended up doing a terrorist attack. Gabriel, as well as his family as been accused of corruption and using a lot of money that was meant for their campaign for themselves, including letting criminals off the hook. Tristan was involved in a construction tragedy when he ended up killing several workers. Arti killed a civilian who had done nothing wrong. David killed a political figure had a peace rally. Even Larissa did something bad, she paired off couples that strangely all committed suicide shortly after. Sources claim she knew that would happen, which is why she did it. Marisa…" He paused, reading over what he was reading several more times. "Apparently she was accused of sending off fake articles, which caused a huge ruckus in the industry, as well as personally being involved in murders she reported on. Nonam is in this mess for betraying the company he worked for, as well as the school."

 _Nonam… betrayed the school? What does that mean?_

"Now, moving on to you all, Chase did…" He read it silently to himself. "He did something I'd rather not say, but he did more than stalk… Next on, Eliza poisoned a man that had been causing severe trouble to the restaurant she worked at. Then, Delilah killed a criminal that had hijacked a plane. Xi had actually been doing the opposite of what he was supposed to do, as a rise of insane people sparked in the city when he became more known, resulting in an investigation being placed on him. As for you Arianna, you murdered another actress out of jealousy, wanting to have the lead role!"

"Don't listen to him!" Delilah repeated, but it was too late…

"I… really did poison him…?" Eliza asked herself, crying.

Chase looked straight ahead. "But… but I left her alone… did I really continue… my memory is a blur."

"Was I really making everything worse…?" Xi said. "The reports…"

"But, why is everything a blur?" Arianna asked herself.

"Guys! Don't listen to him!" Delilah repeated a third time.

Christopher sent a glare towards her. "Just give up, you can't reach them anymore!" He looked back at everyone else. "And because of that, the school felt it should gather you all in one place. Which is why they made Chase's talent the Ultimate Flirt. And why they were so persistence on Terra showing up, even going as far as calling her the Ultimate Rebel when she refused. The people who built this replica school, are the same who built the original! As for your memory lost, that, was the school once again. They sent you off into this school, and gave me permission to do whatever I wanted to do…"

"So you started this killing game!" Delilah yelled out.  
Arianna was looking at the ground, choosing to remain silent.

"B-but, does that mean we deserved it…" Eliza asked.

Chase slowly nodded. "Sounds like it…"

"It's why Nonam was placed in here with you all. However, I thought he also lost his memory." Christopher added.

"Arianna! Chase! Eliza! Xi!" Delilah called out. "Don't listen to him! None of you did that!" But her voice was received with silence.

 _I… I've been avoiding this issues for years, in fear of the answer. But, was that why I was truly accepted? Because I committed murder? Out of jealousy? What did that end up giving me? Absolutely nothing! So… why did I do it? And why is it blurry. Is it because I wanted to forget so bad? Oh god no, I don't even want to think about it anymore. And what happens if we escape this place? Will we just be hunted down again? No, that can't be! If that's the case, I don't… I don't want to leave! Do I even deserve to leave?_

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"Hey…!" A voice called out to me.

"What…?" I mumbled to myself, I glanced up to see who it was. I was surrounded by darkness, but, in that darkness, there was a faint light. Where was I? I started to approach the light, ever so slowly, as it became more apparent what, or who, it was. "N-Nonam?"

Nonam was floating in the air above me, looking down at me. "Yeah, it's me."

"W-what are you doing here?" I blurted out. "More importantly, where am _I_?"

He thought a bit on how to formulate his next sentence. "This is your subconscious of sorts. And I'm just a memory of myself."

"A, memory?" I repeated to him. "How does that work?"

He shrugged a little. "Wish I could tell you, but this is how you perceive me to be."

"Alright." I said. "But what are you doing here?"

"You might not remember, but at school, we became great friends, it kinda happened here too." He looked at me with a smile.

"But… why would you be friends with someone who killed?" I asked him.

He gave off a slightly confused expression. "Killed? But you did nothing of that sort."

What? "W-what do you mean?" I asked him.

"Look, do you really think I would betray my company for a bunch of criminals?" He pointed out.

"Well, no…" I responded.

He smiled slightly. "Which means I must have figured out the truth, and realized you all did nothing wrong!"

I looked down, thinking back to that night. "Nothing wrong… Then why don't I remember!"

"Because people don't want you to remember!" He shouted at me.

"Don't want us to remember?" I repeated.

He nodded. "I don't know it for myself since I'm just a memory of me. But I speak based on the things your subconscious knows. Which means, you found some evidence that proved your innocence!"

I started to think back to what I saw. "Proves my innocence?" And then it struck me. I did see something that proved my innocence! Then, could that apply to the others as well. Wait, the articles writing by M.C.! That has to be Marisa! Her last name is Campbell, so it fits! Is this why she is in this situation? I… I just need to connect it all together!

.

 _She looked at the movie cover, however, the only thing she could read was the year it was made. Which was 2034._

 _Sighing, she walked over to a room, placing the DVD in player. Once she was done, she headed back to the main room._

 _The movie started shortly after…_

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 _Actors presents in this film:_

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 _Arthur Black_

 _Brian Clyde_

 _Erwin Mani  
Rebecca Mariel_

 _Whitney Russels_

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"That's it! Her name was in a foreign movie long after she supposedly died!" Arianna called out.

"W-what?" Christopher asked.

Delilah smirked. At least someone was listening now.

"And all the other ones!" She continued. "They are also all wrong!"

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 _Catrina never really spent much time at school. She was sent overseas several time during her school life. She had many rich people invite her to host the music part of their party. And she was never one to turn down an offer. But this didn't affect her likelihood to graduate, as attending class wasn't mandatory. She was a little random at times, taking in any suggestions for music, without actually listening to it first, saying she could make any music, good music._

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"Catrina was set up as she fully trusted the source." Arianna yelled out. "Which is why it was so easy to do!"

Christopher wanted to responded but couldn't.

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 _School Tragedy._

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 _A young ninth grader was found dead in her home, this Saturday. Not much information was allowed to be released to the public, however, I don't care and here's what I found out happened. She had been subject to intense bullying from the start of ninth grade. Her best friend always coming to her aid. However, said best friend eventually had to leave to go somewhere. This struck the bullies as the perfect opportunity to strike. One session of bullying got out of hand, and the girl ended up dying. They don't seem to want that truth to slip up. The best friend just so happen to return around the same time the victim died._

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 _~M.C._

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"This article basically proves that Terra couldn't have done it! She was gone!" Arianna pointed out. She looked at the other three who had fallen into despair. She would get to theirs soon.

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 _Chemical mixup._

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 _Reports of chemical have been filed everywhere around the city. This has caused the death of several people. So of course, I looked into this myself. Apparently whoever did this, acquired the mixture from a research facility. If the culprit stole it, or got permission to use it is still unknown, but it points to the former as the culprit so bluntly left the mixture's name and creator at the scene of the crime._

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 _~M.C._

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"Whoever did this was obviously trying to set up Jenna! There's no other way to look at it!"

"S-stop that!" Christopher called out. "That's all lies!

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 _2034 model._

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 _The 2034 model had a fine addition added into it's system. It auto locks the steering wheel so they cannot turn abruptly. As they are not meant to do that. They are meant to head straight. However, if someone were to disable that function, then it would be able to turn. However, there is no reason to ever turn that function off normally._

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"The 2034 models, which Tristan ended up damaging shouldn't have been able to do what the video showed! Someone had to had sabotaged it before hand. And not only that, but based off the video, it was a small rock he threw. And the guy who went off course somehow lived." She continued on.

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 _False Corruption_

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 _Several reports of a corruption going on in a sector of politics have recently come to light to me. So of course, I did my own digging. Apparently the party being accused of corruption is supposingly being framed. Some outside force is being paid to sabotage this party. The leader of the party, Jackson, and his son, received most of the accusations. However, they refuse to back out, which seems like the right choice._

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 _~M.C._

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"As for Gabriel, he and his father were being framed. And the only reason they didn't back down, was because they knew they were innocent, and they would do anything to prove so!" Arianna continued.

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 _A Shot in the Day._

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 _Last Friday, a politician was shot dead during a speech. The culprit who did it still remains unknown. The politician was shot from approximately 100m away from the culprit. So a long ranged weapon was most likely used for this assault. Soon, a sniper rifle was found abandoned around the area the shot originated from_

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 _~M.C._

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"As for this one! David is being accused of shooting a politician. He might be very wrong in the head, but he doesn't use guns. He's a blacksmith, so it's probably not something he would make anyways! Besides that, I can't vouch for his other crimes…"

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 _Thief in the Light_

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 _Earlier this month, famed matchmaker Larissa Banks had been robbed on the street. She tried to pursue the crook but couldn't keep up. However, the crook was found in an alleyway not far off, severely bloody. Apparently someone had attacked him, now, I won't disclose that information for reasons alone to me. But the crook was captured._

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 _~M.C._

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"And this actually really fits in with what happened involving Arti. He was accused of attacking an innocent person. But it's actually the crook that stole from Larissa. Which would also explain why she spent a lot of time around him. She probably remembered him, although he probably didn't know who he was helping."

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 _Suicidal Mysteries_

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 _Recently, several couples had been found dead in their home for unknown reasons, upon further investigation from the authorities, they ruled out the scenarios as a suicide. However, when I went to the scene myself, a lot of things didn't add up. Most of the clues there pointed towards a third party being involved and killing the couple. This proved true for the next few couples that had killed themselves. Further investigation proved that someone else had indeed killed them and made it appear as a double suicide, or that one murdered the other. Video footage found in one house did paint the story pretty clearly._

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 _~M.C._

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"Marisa personally investigated the scenes of these and realized the inconsistencies with the reports made by other people! She noticed right away that it wasn't suicide. The couples were all murdered to give Larissa a bad nam-" Arianna was cut off.

"How do you even know Marisa is telling the truth?" Christopher asked out. It looked like he didn't want to believe anything Arianna said, like he was somehow also caught up in the lie.

"Because…" Arianna started off. "Someone from the school verified it themselves…"

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 _So, I don't know what this school is planning to do with the students of the 75th class. But from what I've gathered, it isn't good. I don't know why they have gathered these students either. There is a much bigger picture here, however, I have heard of the rumours going around. Someone is targeting these students. The reports, which were published by her, turned out to be true when I did my own digging. But the school seems very against it at the moment. I put my full trust in her, and I'm even going to help her with her work. I just need to not get caught._

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 _~J.T._

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"That was written by Jessica." Delilah said. "She came to me about this entire issue and I read the articles myself. As for what I'm being accused of. The person was killed on grounds of failing a mission, which explains the brand."

"Which I think is explained in this article." Arianna said.

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 _Hijack Hi-jinks_

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 _After a recent hijacking, the culprit was found dead several blocks away. People at the area around the time of death say that they did not see anything. However, the body itself was marked with a brand. That brand likely links him to a group. It did not match up with the standard location that the mark was always branded on the stomach. This one was branded on the back. Which means this must be a different reason. Further investigation shows he could have failed a mission, and was killed for it._

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 _~M.C._

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"Once again, written by Marisa" Arianna pointed out. She glanced over at the three that were still in despair.

 _I have to save them now._

"Chase." She said to him.

"I… I didn't do it…" He mumbled. "I left her alone, I just, my memory draws blank!" He mumbled.

"The girl you were accused of. Well. She lied about several cases and was arrested herself. This article proves that."

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 _Under false fire._

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 _After several charges were sent out by her, Maxine Parkinson has finally been arrested for sending out false charges. While I'm not going to say what charges she filed, as, they are numerous. Just know that almost every single one of them were false charges and landed several people in trouble. She thought because she was rich, that she could get away with it._

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 _~M.C._

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This seemed to snap Chase out of it. "R-right! False charges. Of course I knew that."

 _No you didn't_.

"What about the others?" He glanced over at Eliza and Xi.

"Well, there should have been other articles in the school." Delilah said.

Arianna nodded. "This one is what I found for Eliza. The poison she was accused of using is not that lethal if ingested and would take awhile to actually kill someone. So it seems that he had been poisoned by someone else. I'd want to say the person who had accused her is the one who did it. He knew what the beans were and was too quick to point it out, according to the video.

Eliza now stopped out of it. "Y-you mean it wasn't me…?"

Arianna smiled at her but it soon turned to a frown. "No, you didn't." She then turned ti Xi. "And I guess he's the last one." She would have rather just left him in despair, but she would need all the help she could get. "As for Xi, the reason why more people were going crazy wasn't because you made them go crazy! A lot of people heard about you and they wanted to get fixed. As the Ultimate Psychologist, you have helped a lot of people's minds. This article here proves it."

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 _Instability._

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 _Over the years, the population of unstable people have risen in the area. But contrary to what people believe, it isn't just rising completely. Yes, more people are unstable now, but those are people who seem to have moved in, while the people who were unstable before have seem to restabilize. So the people coming to this area are coming here to seek help._

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 _~M.C._

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"Of course." Xi said looking the other way. He seemed completely gone from the despair. "Do you really think I'd believe such lies like that?"

"You turned to despair." Arianna pointed out.

"Merely an act." He replied.

 _Yeah, no._

Everyone glanced over at Christopher, who was seemingly very worried.

"T-this doesn't add up with what I've been told." He mumbled.

"Christopher! Let us out!" Chase called out. "You don't have to keep doing this!"

He looked over at Chase. "Yes, I do need to keep doing this. It's either my life or yours. And I don't want to die."

"Well if you don't let us out! We will kill you!" Arianna yelled out.

He shook his head. "Do you really think it will end there? Do you think killing me will be the end of it?"

Arianna clenched her fist. "No, but it will be the start of the end."

"Why wouldn't it be the end?" Eliza asked.

Christopher looked at her. "You think I'm the only one in this? I just got ropped in. My two options were to join them, or die. So of course I chose to live."

"You chose to live by sacrificing all of our lives!" Arianna yelled out.

Christopher looked the other way. "I didn't want to! If there was another option I would have taken it. But I also didn't want to die"

"You still choose to let us die. That's not what someone with morals would do." She yelled at him.

"You know, I used to have morals. I used to have dreams to. I thought going to that school would be great for me. But no, instead, I was ignored like I had been my whole life. That doesn't inspire me to do anything! Me getting into that school was nothing but a fluke!" He yelled out.

Chase got away from his podium. "Alright! I have had enough of this!" He started walking towards Christopher.

Christopher backed up in his seat. "Hey! Stay away from me!" He took out a remote and pressed a button on it. It seemed to be something that turned on Monokuma. However, Monokuma didn't activate. "Shi-"

Chase lifted him up by the collar. "I won't ask again. Let us out!"

"I-I can't!" He struggled to say.

"And why not!" Chase yelled at him.

"B-because… they'll kill me!" He mumbled.

"Who is they anyways? Maybe we can help!" Eliza said.

Christopher was having a harder time breathing the longer Chase held him up. "The people who gave me this chance to live. They are more powerful than you can imagine."

"Stop playing the fucking pronoun game and tell me who they are!" Chase yelled at him.

Christopher shook his name. "I-I don't know their names! B-but I do know their talents…"

"Then just tell us their talents, and we'll know to tell the authorities…" Xi said.

"A-authorities? Y-you know nothing!" Christopher coughed out.

"Just speak!" Chase yelled out.

"F-fine! If you want to know that badly, their leader it the Ultimate -"

Christopher never got to finish that sentence. A blast of something came out of Monokuma and shot Chase right in his right eye. He went flying, hitting the wall of the trial grounds.

"Chase!" Eliza yelled out as she ran over to him. He seemed to have his right side damaged.

Christopher slowly got to his feet. "That was close…" He mumbled. Someone was standing behind him, so he glanced over at who it was.

"Tsk tsk, Christopher! I thought you'd have been smarter than that!" Monokuma said.

He started to back up. "But wait! I didn't tell them anything!"

Monokuma was slowly approaching him. "No, I guess you didn't. But that's only because I stopped you!" He seemed pissed as he showed his claws. "The deal was that you worked with us and gave us your loyalty. This is clearly an act of betrayal!"

"N-no! I was going to lie anyways!" Christopher tried to defend himself.

Monokuma stopped for a second. "Not going to buy it!" He plunged at Christopher, stabbing him rapidly everywhere he could get his hands at. Blood started to flow on the ground as Monokuma continued to massacre him.

After a while, Christopher's body went limp.

"If only he was actually the Ultimate Lucky Student. He seemed more unlucky than anything!" Monokuma laughed. "The only reason he was even allowed at the school was because of my involvement! Every other instance has been bad luck!"

Eliza blocked Monokuma from going to Chase in case he was planning on attacking again.

"Relax! You guys all fought for your right to survive! So who would I be to kill you all now. Kinda have to be consistent! So, I will let you escape from here!" He reached into Christopher's pockets, which were soaked in blood. "Here it is!" He tossed a remote to Xi, who caught it.

"No way are you letting us leave…" Arianna said to him.

Monokuma glared at her. "Bears don't lie! If I say you can leave, you can leave!"

Xi tossed the remote to Delilah. "You take care of this, I have other things to go take care of." He left towards the elevator and got in.

Delilah caught it, looking at it. "Alright…"

Arianna looked at everyone with a frown. "So why didn't you think it was wise to let me in on the plan?"

Delilah let out a sigh. "I thought it be best if one person was going to collect all the articles."

"That brings up my next question… where did you get the articles! I know you were the one to place them." Arianna glared at Delilah.

Delilah looked at the ground. "I don't know. I found them with my belongings and I knew someone had handed to me before. The odd thing is that they weren't there when we first got there. They appeared around the time the play was happening." She frowned.

Arianna shook her head. "I'm not buying it! You also could have told us beforehand the crimes we were accused of and told us why it was a lie before letting Christopher take care of that!"

Eliza was slowly dragging over Chase towards the two others. "We also wanted to tell you about the plan, but Delilah wouldn't let u-"

Arianna out of pure rage, slapped Eliza across the face. "I do not care!"

Eliza clutched her cheek and looked like she was about to cry. She didn't say anything else and kept bringing Chase over to the elevator, although with difficulties.

"We don't have time for this." Delilah said to Arianna. "We have to make sure Chase is still alive."

"He'll be fine!" Arianna crossed her arms as she walked over to the elevator.

Delilah frowned as she also walked into the elevator.

The elevator went up for the last time. This time, it was very awkward. Arianna was mad at everyone else who was alive. She felt betrayed by them. This stress could have been removed had they just told her it was fake. She was happy that they get to live. But her mind was almost broken now because of them. After a while, the elevator doors opened, and Xi was waiting, wearing a sheath.

"Isn't that Arti's katana?" Eliza asked.

Xi smirked. "Of course it is. Why would I leave something like this here?"

"But we don't need it." Arianna said.

"Did you not listen to the words of Christopher. When we brought up the authorities, he said we knew nothing about what was going on. I'm bringing this as precaution."

Delilah helped Eliza get Chase to his feet, who opened his one good eye, looking around. "W-what happened…" He mumbled.

"We get to escape!" Eliza said with a smile to him.

"Oh… yeah!" He chuckled a little bit before coughing up some blood.

"We should hurry!" Eliza frowned.

They all headed towards the entrance of the school. Soon, they arrived at the barricaded doors.

Delilah took out the remote she was given and pressed a button. The doors slowly opened to reveal the outside world.

A terrible, terrible place. All five of them could see fires in the distance, and broken down buildings.

"W-what!" Eliza mumbled.

Delilah simply frowned.

Xi shook his head. "I knew something like this was going to happen."

Chase was too dazed to even react.

But, Arianna starred at the destruction that lied before her. Words, failing to escape her mouth. She had nothing to say about this. It was hard to even say anything.

Then, on the horizon, a few people were running towards them.

Xi drew the katana, ready to slash them. "I'm ready to kill them!"

The people stopped running after seeing Xi pull out a weapon.

"Wait!" A girl called out. "We mean no harm! We are here to help you!" The girl told her group to wait before running at them. "We've been watching the broadcast for some time but couldn't do anything. This place was too fortified." She frowned. She looked over at Chase. "Hey! We have an injured here! He's hurt in the eye!"

Someone ran over to grab Chase and carried him towards the other group not to far.

"W-who are you people?" Arianna asked, a little mad.

"Who are we? It's simple. We are The Seekers!"

Arianna took a moment to breath before asking the next question. "The Seekers of what?"

The girl smiled. "The Seekers of Fate."

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Later, much later…

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Two people were in the school. They were harmed and were searching for any form of evidence.

One of them peeked into one of the students rooms. "This is the one!" He said as he walked into the room. He walked over to the desk, taking out a tool, and using it to cut what appeared to be a laptop out of it.

The second person walked into the room. "What does it say?"

The first person started going through the documents. "Some stuff we already know." He kept looking through the documents. "Oh! This is the one we are looking for!" He read the document until getting to the part he wanted.

.

 _To be honest, I found the laptop in my drawer one day. So I didn't bring it. And it already had info on it. Including the fact that there isn't just one person being the mastermind. There's about five other people working together to make six in total. I found this info deep within the computer. So it was meant to be hidden, like they didn't want it to be found so easily. But then why give me the laptop? Out of the five not currently here, it would seem that-_

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And then gunshot was heard.

The first person was getting riddled with bullets, as well as the laptop.

One the gunshot died down, the second person lowered his gun. He walked over to the first person, who was now dead, and the laptop. "We can't have any of that information leaking, can we now?" He turned around and walked out of the room. He took out what seemed to be a small phone. He pulled up a number and hit call. "It's done, the information is destroyed. Unless they can find a way to dig out info that's been shot a bunch of times." He waited a bit to hear the response on the other end. "Understood." He hung up and walked away.

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The End.


End file.
